Technology seem to be extremely challenged this evening. I couldn't get on CAFCTV and the Charlton Life and Forever Charlton sites appeared to be on a go-slow. Server trouble in Paradise I guess. So my knowledge of the game is very patchy and thanks largely to the BBC whose site is built for midweek football volumes.
What is evident to all is that Gus Poyet played a technical masterstroke by ensuring his side went down to ten men inside ten minutes. Having gone behind to a Jackson penalty on three minutes, Poyet signalled to Calderon with the old finger across the throat move and Inigo duly obliged with a reckless, studs-up challenge to earn a straight red. It was a bold move but it ensured Brighton would not risk their unbeaten home record and the ten men recovered predictably enough to get an equaliser and then match our eleven for the rest of the game. It is a bold strategy but Poyet had obviously done his homework.
From the rest of snippets I managed to glean, we looked short again up front with Benson drawing particular criticism from Steve Brown who made it very clear to radio listeners that Brighton are currently helping pay his bills.
I'm guessing Parky will be pleased with the point at the leaders and I would have taken it before the game. We will need to be more ambitious at Colchester on Saturday if we are to avoid slipping down the table.
Listening to the match...Benson deserved the critism. It was not one of his best matches...and if the cliche of playing against ten men is difficult, is true, maybe we would have done better had the referee followed that red with another more deserved one for Brighton, to leave Poyet's strategy lying in pieces around him.
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