The lights well and truly went out at Blackpool this afternoon. Any lingering Charlton hopes of automatic promotion were shredded in a five goal battering that saw hundreds of travelling Addicks pour out after the fifth goal with fully 20 minutes remaining.
This made depressing listening and I am really glad I stayed at home. I have turned the scratchy BBC Kent commentary off in solidarity with those that have walked out. I see that Jonathan Fortune has pulled a third back but it's far too little.
Hard to know where this went wrong because we looked to be playing well enough up front. Andy Gray was put through on goal for the first chance of the game but his shot cannonned off the legs of ex-Addick, Paul Rabchubka. Blackpool were seeing plenty of the ball and it was no surprise when they opened the scoring minutes later when McPhee rifled home after Weaver had parried a shot across goal. Blackpool were buzzing and the second followed in similar circumstances minutes later when another Weaver save was volleyed back into the net.
Charlton still had some fight at this stage and Darren Ambrose slid in at the far post to convert Grant Basey's cross after fine work from Halford and Zheng Zhi. Before we could get our breath back, Ambrose had lashed home a cracking second from nowhere and Charlton were back in the game. We went in 2-2 at half time and you thought we might be first to score in the second half and maybe hang on for a memorable victory.
No such chance. Blackpool had seen the opportunities available in the Charlton defence if Weaver was put under pressure and that was the tactic they deployed so effectively in the second half as they killed the game. Blackpool's third came just before the hour and it was another parried shot from Weaver which fell for Taylor-Fletcher to score. Memories of a 5 goal drubbing in the 70's when Bob Hatton was the tormentor-in-chief came flooding back, just in time for Dickov to embarrass Greg Halford to score the fourth. The fifth was the kind of goal you only score when you are four-up. A mishit cross from Talyor -Fletcher flew over Nicky Weaver and nestled in the top corner.
Alan Pardew will, no doubt, have some harsh words to say because there simply aren't sufficient positives to concentrate on when you have shipped five goals at Blackpool. Like the rest of us he will be mystified why we have been outplayed by a team we ran rings around in January. This performance really hurts but worse could yet follow because we will be struggling for the play-offs before the end of the month at this rate.
Just off to watch Scotland slump in Dublin to round off another disappointing sporting Saturday.
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