Charlton Athletic 4 v Carlisle United 0

Well, we all went looking for a response and few can argue that we didn't get one.


Carlisle United had threatened to come and attack us on the back of their fourth away league victory at Yeovil last week. It was hard to see what the Carlisle game-plan was because they were so poor and were beaten with barely a quarter of the game played. It was a huge let-down for the 400 Cumbrian die-hards who made the journey, especially those from the border-town who were on the 6am coach. Four of them made the climb up to the Village pre-match as they had a White Swan connection. They were from a coach that goes to every game - £400 for the season. It was great to hear them talking of their long journeys and I was more than happy to point out that I am hoping to be at Brunton Park in April for our hat-trick of promotions on their ground.


The subject of goalkeeper Jimmy Glass' last gasp league preserving goal inevitably came up and "Ginge" shared his own personal dedication to the moment. He also had the back-page headlines from the News of the World tattooed around his neck. I suppose it was an historic and almost unbelievable event for Carlisle fans.


Back to the match and Chris Powell drafted Chris Solly back in at right-back but stuck with Green and Kermorgant. We also looked to have made an enforced change in the middle with utilty man Andy Hughes partnering Danny Hollands in the engine room. I was a little apprehensive about this but they looked like they had played together for years. Danny Green played like he had been told it was his last start and with Jackson firing on the left, we had width and were at Carlile from the off. Green and BWP had chances before our opening goal which had some fine wing play and an excellent cross from Jackson which hit the unmarked Kermorgant plum centre and he has the simple task of deciding which side of the keeper to direct his header. One-nil and there was no response from the visitors. Within ten minutes it was two-nil. A woeful short back pass let Bradley Wright-Phillips nip in and steer the ball into the far corner from a tight angle.


Still no response from Carlisle and the third was inevitable. Rhoys Wiggins looked like a "man on a mission" yesterday and you could be forgiven from his attacking performance for assuming he bore some grudge against Carlisle or that he was a former player. He raced down the flank cut into the box, skipped a challenge and pinger the ball back to a host of players. The first effort was blccked, as was the second but the third was rifled home by Yann Kermorgant.


After the break it was really only a case of how many and the answer was four. Danny Hollands, showing considerably more urgency than last week, strode through the middle and then accelerated at goal before hitting a hopeful shot which squirmed out of Collin's hands and rolled over the line. After that we pretty much played the game out although Ben Hamer did have a penalty to save before the scoreline was set.


All-in-all, a home performance that you might expect to see fairly frequently from a table-topping team and one that I have crying out for in recent weeks. If we can carry the urgency and focus to Wycombe in the week then we might well have a points cushion again to take to the tough looking fixture at Hartlepool on Saturday.