Charlton Athletic 1 v Colchester United 2

Today's game promised to summarise the sesason so far and show us the way ahead in terms of final season ambitions. I think it managed to do both.

Kevin Lisbie was not a good enough player to play for Charlton in the Premiership but he demonstrated today that he is more than good enough to play against us in the Championship. His two first half goals (one a penalty he earned and scored) gave us too much to do and we slipped to an embarrassing home defeat in spite of creating eight decent chances in the first half and nearly as many in the second.

Let me start with the formation. We got this wrong again from the start. The back four was as anticipated, Bougherra, McCarthy, Fortune and Powell. In midfield Alan Pardew again opted for five with Thomas, Holland, Semedo, Zheng Zhi and Sam, leaving Chris Iwelumo alone upfront. We needed to go with two up front and Varney should have started with Iwelumo.

As a result, we opened cautiously and whilst we enjoyed much of the early possession, there was precious little in the final third and Colchester were encouraged to come forward. Kevin Lisbie was looking to run at our back four every chance he got and he was thwarted on two occasions (Fortune and Weaver) before he was brought down for a penalty on 15 minutes. This will benefit from a detailed explanation of what happened; Jonathan Fortune picked up a long ball over the top from Colchester and he played it across the centre to McCarthy. McCarthy then rolled it out to Bougherra in the right-back position and Bougherra decided he was going to play the ball out of defence. He played the ball forward with his first touch, but too far in front of himself and his second touch was a block tackle which he lost comprehensively. As Mark Yeates broke down the flank in acres of space, Bougherra was left lying face-down, more from embarrassment from the mistake than any pain from the tackle. The ball through to Lisbie was perfect and McCarthy couldn't stay with him. He brought him down in a mock stumble that probably saved him from a straight red card and he escaped with just the yellow. Lisbie finished easily and the warning had been served.

Annoyingly, nothing changed as a result of the penalty and the thought of the unthinkable was on my mind when the ball pinged around the Charlton box again with several of our defenders taking it in turns to fail to clear the ball properly. It eventually dropped to Lisbie with his back to goal and McCarthy "up his arse." Don't ask me how, but Lisbie somehow managed to smash the ball into the roof of the net with an overhead kick of sorts. I'll have to see it again because it beggared belief and whilst it may have been the best bit of skill he's ever produced at the Valley, I suspect it was aided and abetted by McCarthy's and Co's inept defending.

It only took another ten minutes for Alan Pardew to make a change. Luke Varney was brought on and the formation shuffled to 4-4-2. Two goals and 36 minutes too late. What was really telling was the substitution. Zheng Zhi had been wondering around in a trance, and the Chinese New Year is weeks away. He was continually out of position and had lost possession with almost every touch. The switch looked obvious but Pardew was clearly more concerned with the performance of the defence. Not only was McCarthy subbed but Bougherra was brought into his more comfortable centre-half position and Semedo moved to right back. Paddy McCarthy was clearly unhappy and he marched straight passed Pardew without a look from either and down the tunnel. The good work of the last few games seemingly undone.

We looked much better in the final ten minutes of the first half. For the first time we were playing with urgency, support and intelligence. Thomas wasted a fine run with a trade-mark skewed shot which missed the gaping target. Iwleumo flicked a header from a corner down across the face of goal and just wide. Then we struck. Lloyd Sam finally got a cross in having beaten his man and Iwelumo dummied at the near post which left Varney to apply the finish on the six yard line. We were flying at this point and Varney had the ball in the net two minutes later but had fouled the keeper in winning the ball. Half-time came five minutes too early and Colchester got their breather.

The second half started disappointingly slowly and although we created enough good chances to have more than deserved an equiliser, we didn't match the tempo of the last ten minutes of the first half. Chris Iwelumo missed the best chance after Lloyd Sam skated in behind the full-back and fired the ball across the face of goal. Big Chris slid in a second too late to convert. Colchester were all over the place at times in the second half but they had a lead to protect and they did enough to hold on. Kevin Lisbie was surprisingly substituted after 70 minutes but Colchester were on count-down.

So, another disappointing home performance has resulted in another defeat against a side we should be beating in style. Poor defending has combined with equally bad finishing to cost us dearly. Giving away the lead at home has almost become de rigeur. There isn't a lot of quality in the Championship and we haven't got enough to mark us out for an automatic return. A play-off spot will be the best we can expect and I now believe this might be beyond us unless we get some better players back or in during the next three weeks. You have to ask why Chris Dickson isn't being given a run? I suspect he'll figure against West Brom in an experimental side, although Hull, Norwich and Colchester would have been easier teams against which to blood him.