As if Saturday's dramatic 3-2 win the Valley wasn't enough, Charlton went one better this evening by losing a two-nil lead and then going on to win the match in the last couple of minutes.
Increasingly, early round League Cup games take on the form of handicap matches with the "bigger" club usually deciding to rest players and field a team that they hope should be good enough to get the result, usually with some big gun reinforcements on the bench. That was precisely what happened tonight.
Randolph started in goal, with a back-four of Semedo, Fortune, McCarthy and Powell. You could add Faye to that but I think he was supposed to playing in midfield with French debutant, Thierry Racon, Zheng Zhi and Lloyd Sam with Todorow and McLeod up top.
The side acquitted themselves well in the first half and were unfortunate not have scored earlier than Todorov's opener from 20 yards which was a quality strike and a reminder of some of the class difference on show. McLeod was very busy and the front pairing were supported well from Zheng Zhi, Racon and Sam who was thriving on strong and quick raiding support from Semedo, who looked even more comfortable at right-back than he did at left-back on Saturday. Indeed it was Mcleod who was brought down after turning and wriggling free in the box that lead to a twice taken penalty for the second goal just before half-time; Zheng converting after the initial effort was missed by McLeod.
The second half started much as the first had, a reasonable League Cup crowd (8,000-ish) were looking for the third to kill the game. Unfortunately, this was the signal for Stockport to dominate for a 15 minute spell during which they scored three times and forced a superb reflex save from Randolph in the process. The back four, and probably the centre-back pairing, in particular, went to sleep during this period. They were not helped by a careless back-pass from Faye which lead to the equaliser or by McCarthy failing to cut out a secondary ball from a corner for the lead. I don't think this did much for fledgling Randolph's confidence either. Stockport's noisy 400 following could barely contain themselves on taking the lead and the Valley faithful took a deep breath and braced themselves for the finale.
Charlton stepped up a gear at this point and created a string of chances, the best of which was a 50-yard, three man inter-passing and running move involving Sam, Zheng and Todorov. Todorov's deft flick over Adamson just missing the post. Todorov also clipped the bar with a delightfully curled shot from out left. Lloyd Sam was having the best ten minutes of his career in his best Charlton performance to date. He was up-ended after another powerful run and from the resulting free-kick exacted his revenge. He struck a perfect low and hard shot which looked to have moved slightly around the wall before streaking in at the keeper's left hand post. The Valley was buzzing and Charlton pressing for the winner to avoid 30 minutes of extra time.
Iwelumo was on for McLeod and Ambrose came on for Racon. Iwelumo was threatening and had one header ruled offisde for pushing before Ambrose fired narrowly wide after a burst through the box. With two minutes remaining Paddy McCarthy finally jumped to head a ball and his delight was obvious as his header crashed home our last corner of the game.
Alan Pardew's post-match comment will be interesting. Plenty more positives but the centre-back pairing is not right yet. I sincerely hope someone comes in for Amdy Faye. He's had plenty of opportunity to prove his worth and tonight was the straw that broke the camel's back for me; I can forgive a player without the ability but not one who repeatedly doesn't try his best. Unless Pards has a good explanation, he was playing nowhere this evening in between defence and midfield. He was by-passed with ease and failed to make any telling contribution other than handing Stockport the equaliser. Ten men wouldn't have fared any worse.
For my money, Lloyd Sam was man of the Match. Another couple of performances like this and he will begin to emerge as the talent we hope he is.
Next stop Norwood Junction!
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