A heartening draw in a pulsating London derby courtesy of another last gasp goal. I have to report that Pau.
l and I convinced ourselves on 88 minutes that the result was beyond us and that we would be better off beating the rush back to White City than suffering the ignominy of gloating home fans at the whistle.
Our pre-match plans were changed last minute due a mate's Mum taking a fall and needing a hospital visit. So instead of meeting a few of his QPR mates in the Stewart Arms behind Shepherds Bush station, we instead headed for Hammersmith and a few pre-match pints in the The Swan. There we're a couple of groups of other Addicks already in there as well as some Leeds fans en route to Fulham
Two stops up the line to Shepherds Bush Market and we were soon out on the Uxbridge Road and heading for Loftus Road. Actually it was Ellerslie Road where I managed to punt out my last match ticket, thanks to the wonders of Charlton Life.
There was fully time for a pint in the corridor that runs behind the upper tier of the shambolic visitors stand before kick-off. There was a time when me and my long-time partner-in-crime used to say how we wished we had a compact stadium like Loftus Road which looked full every time we played and where we could create an atmosphere and be very hard to defeat at home. How times have changed. QPR fans visiting the Valley must look up at our stands and see a whole level of ambition that has eluded them since the mis-70's.
Anyway, we started poorly and Rangers scored with their first serious attack of the afternoon. A delicious ball in from their left was only hooked out ten feet by Naby Sarr and Cameron drove the loose ball into the goal in front of the Charlton fans. It looked ominous and to make matters worse, Leko limped off after ten minutes but we didn't miss him as Albie Morgan quickly played his way into the game.
We couldn't get anything going up front and QPR could have sewn the game up on twenty minutes when Purrington, under pressure, underhit a back pass from way out to Phillips and Nakhi Wells stole in. He had too much time though and having steamed in on goal he hesitated and I think expected Phillips to commit. Dillion stood tall and when Wells finally fired he managed to block the powerful shot which bounce up and out for a corner.
Bowyer had seen enough of our floundering back four and Purrington was hauled off in a tactical switch that saw us move to a back three as Jason Pearce joined the fray. Purrington was visibly furious but probably more through embarrassment than anything else. The switched worked because we looked better to half-time.
Ten minutes after the restart and with the Addicks visibly fired-up, a defensive clearance fell to Albie Morgan just outside the area and he rammed a shot goalward. It probably wouldn't have beaten the QPR defence in their six yard box but Lyle Taylor managed to divert the ball from just in front of them and they were stranded. Now things looked a lot better. Encouraged by the noise from the visiting fans, Charlton took the game to the hosts and we played some lovely stuff. Alfie Doughty was a rampaging joy on the left and he pinned QPR back which encouraged Gallagher to get further forward and with Albie Morgan weighing in we pressed QPR for half-an-hour only for Rangers to score again against the run-of-play. Osayi-Samuel had been brought on and he ran rings around Jason Pearce before setting Pugh up for an easy finish.
With ten minutes to go we looked beaten and QPR saw more of the ball. That was the cue for Paul and I to head off to Charing Cross for a Christmas drink and miss the 95th minute drama of Naby Sarr surging on to a flick over the top and controlling the ball before slamming home in front of 2700 delirious Addicks.
l and I convinced ourselves on 88 minutes that the result was beyond us and that we would be better off beating the rush back to White City than suffering the ignominy of gloating home fans at the whistle.
Our pre-match plans were changed last minute due a mate's Mum taking a fall and needing a hospital visit. So instead of meeting a few of his QPR mates in the Stewart Arms behind Shepherds Bush station, we instead headed for Hammersmith and a few pre-match pints in the The Swan. There we're a couple of groups of other Addicks already in there as well as some Leeds fans en route to Fulham
Two stops up the line to Shepherds Bush Market and we were soon out on the Uxbridge Road and heading for Loftus Road. Actually it was Ellerslie Road where I managed to punt out my last match ticket, thanks to the wonders of Charlton Life.
There was fully time for a pint in the corridor that runs behind the upper tier of the shambolic visitors stand before kick-off. There was a time when me and my long-time partner-in-crime used to say how we wished we had a compact stadium like Loftus Road which looked full every time we played and where we could create an atmosphere and be very hard to defeat at home. How times have changed. QPR fans visiting the Valley must look up at our stands and see a whole level of ambition that has eluded them since the mis-70's.
Anyway, we started poorly and Rangers scored with their first serious attack of the afternoon. A delicious ball in from their left was only hooked out ten feet by Naby Sarr and Cameron drove the loose ball into the goal in front of the Charlton fans. It looked ominous and to make matters worse, Leko limped off after ten minutes but we didn't miss him as Albie Morgan quickly played his way into the game.
We couldn't get anything going up front and QPR could have sewn the game up on twenty minutes when Purrington, under pressure, underhit a back pass from way out to Phillips and Nakhi Wells stole in. He had too much time though and having steamed in on goal he hesitated and I think expected Phillips to commit. Dillion stood tall and when Wells finally fired he managed to block the powerful shot which bounce up and out for a corner.
Bowyer had seen enough of our floundering back four and Purrington was hauled off in a tactical switch that saw us move to a back three as Jason Pearce joined the fray. Purrington was visibly furious but probably more through embarrassment than anything else. The switched worked because we looked better to half-time.
Ten minutes after the restart and with the Addicks visibly fired-up, a defensive clearance fell to Albie Morgan just outside the area and he rammed a shot goalward. It probably wouldn't have beaten the QPR defence in their six yard box but Lyle Taylor managed to divert the ball from just in front of them and they were stranded. Now things looked a lot better. Encouraged by the noise from the visiting fans, Charlton took the game to the hosts and we played some lovely stuff. Alfie Doughty was a rampaging joy on the left and he pinned QPR back which encouraged Gallagher to get further forward and with Albie Morgan weighing in we pressed QPR for half-an-hour only for Rangers to score again against the run-of-play. Osayi-Samuel had been brought on and he ran rings around Jason Pearce before setting Pugh up for an easy finish.
With ten minutes to go we looked beaten and QPR saw more of the ball. That was the cue for Paul and I to head off to Charing Cross for a Christmas drink and miss the 95th minute drama of Naby Sarr surging on to a flick over the top and controlling the ball before slamming home in front of 2700 delirious Addicks.
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