Charlton Athletic 2 v MK Dons 1

The machine grinds on. Another win and another rival despatched. Ten points clear of third-placed Sheffield Wednesday with two games in hand. We should have no complaints, but I am afraid I do. I am not a satisfied punter this evening. After establishing a first half-lead through two penalties, the first of which included a sending off to reduce our opponents to ten men, we let our fans down badly in the second-half. There was very little ambition and even less entertainment.


I will be very interested in Chris Powell's post-match comments because I suspect he has to answer for the anathema that was the second-half. If I hear "it's never easy to play against ten men" I will scream. Two-up and ten men ready to be demoralised further and the game-plan was to knock it about in our own half and see it out. If you can't turn it on for your fans in that situation, when will you? Our home gate wasn't given out this evening but it didn't look great and neutrals might wonder why we haven't seen a notable increase in the numbers of Charlton fans attending home games. We may be victims of our own success to some extent but the entertainment factor is the elephant in the room.


Neat and well organised though they were, I didn't think Milton Keynes offered much in terms of a cutting edge and if we had played the second have with attacking purpose it should have finished up four or five nil. As it was we invited them on for forty-five minutes and it was inevitable that they would pull one back for a nervy last five minutes. Alan Smith looked every year his age this evening and bar a decent first-half contribution to their best chance of the game, he did little and was unsurprisingly subbed. Stephen Gleeson caught my eye and reminded me very much of Ray Houghton, both in terms of looks and style. He prompted everything they tried in the first period but faded a bit during the second.


Our first penalty came from an incident I suspect most of us missed. A ball in was cleared out and as my eyes fell to the Charlton player who ran on to it, there was a roar and Gary Mackenzie was left squaring up to Yann Kermorgant in the back-line. The referee hurtled into the box and flashed a straight red at Mackenzie who had already been booked for flattening the same player in an aerial dual by the Charlton dugout. That challenge drew a strong enough complaint from Chris Powell and Co in my book to make the referee's mind up to show the yellow. Nonetheless, we weren't complaining at the penalty and Johnnie Jackson did what Johnnie Jackson does best. 


Barely ten minutes later and Danny Green fired a scorcher on the run which beat David Martin in the MK goal but struck the bar and post and bounced out. Danny Hollands collected the rebound at the edge of the box and managed to play the ball inside and drop at the incoming tackle. It was a soft second penalty but the result was the same. Two-nil Johnnie Jackson.


I was really looking forward to the second-half and a chance to fire the imagination of my impressionable ten year old nephew. We blew that and, as I have said, let our fans down in the process. 


There are often complaints on the message boards about our relatively poor away following and by-and-large we have played better away from home this season, but it's hard if you are season ticket holder and infrequent away traveller to make the effort when the entertainment on offer at home games leaves you feeling short-changed. I might sound like a spoilt git here but I think it's really important in the development and success of our club.


Johnnie Jackson was probably the stand-out player this evening and interesting that he was the first subbed in the second-half. Wiggins and Solly were peerless again even if Taylor and Morrison ambled about after the break invariably looking for the square ball or Hamer. 


Danny Green was poor in the second period and he should have gone off but Hollands and Stephens weren't prompting anything and I suspect Jackson was only too pleased to leave the neutralisation to others when he got his call. 


Once again, I can't fault Kermorgant once for his effort and running but Bradley Wright-Phillips had another poor showing. He saw much more of the ball this evening than of late but his touch was poor and he was tackled almost every time he touched it.


Tranmere on Saturday when we will probably show more ambition than we did this evening but only a few hundred Charlton fans will see it. If we want bigger gates in the forthcoming series of Tuesday home games, we will need to be far more positive and ambitious than we were this evening. 


PS, I got my Bournemouth tickets today.....