Charlton Athletic 5 v AFC Wimbledon 2

A classic game of two halves at the Valley this afternoon and, I believe, what should be a final lesson for Lee Bowyer.

In the first-half we did ok against what I felt was a very ordinary Wimbledon team. Our defence was largely untroubled until the end of the half when Pearce and Pratley in central defence went missing allowing not only Joe Piggott to fire in from 25 yards but to also take the lead from a close range header where there were no less than three yellow shirts competing for the ball and not a red one in sight. Conor Washington had put us one-up with a delightful shot, having turned inside his man on the edge of the box and lining up a curler which whistled in. He was quick to congratulate Jason Pearce for the slide-rule pass from deep which created the opportunity.

In between times we had battled in midfield to try and get balls up to Omar Bogle but once more the only ones that seemed to stick with him momentarily were when he was out wide and of no immediate threat to the opposition. The fact that he and Gilbey were yanked off on 53 minutes confirmed that Bowyer had seen enough and that we needed some drive and urgency to avoid another home defeat. That urgency was fired by Jonny Williams and Chuks Anneke who both tore into the Wimbledon back line. Maatsen had been having a solo go for most of the first half and was emboldened, as was Chris Gunter who suddenly surged forward from his full-back berth. 

Within ten minutes, we were level. Anneke had been played in on the right by a determined run from Gunter and his acutely angled shot was blocked by Trueman in the Wimbledon goal but the deflection only succeeded in arriving at the feet of Jake Forster-Caskey who gleefully rammed it home.

A minute later and an even more committed move at pace down our right side saw Gunter play a one-two with Maddison as he advanced into the box a la Anneke a minute before but instead of shooting he picked out Jonny Williams in the same spot that Forster-Caskey had scored from and Jonny fired home to his obvious delight in front of the Covered End.

We had the lead now and Wimbledon made four substitutions over the next fourteen minutes as they tried in vain to get back on terms. Maatsen, who had been a thorn in the opposition's side all afternoon, got down the left again on 84 minutes but his ball in appeared to have been claimed by the Wimbledon defence, but under pressure from Chuks Anneke, they lost it and Chuks was able to drag it on and squeeze it in off Trueman for 4-2. 

There was then just enough time for the third Charlton substitute to get on the scoresheet. Jonny Williams must have thought he had scored his scored when he flicked the ball beyond Trueman but it struck a post and fell for Ben Purrington who gleefully made it five from close range. 

It was great to see us score 5 goals in one game having managed only 20 in 15 games previously. I really hope we can start with close to the side we finished with on Tuesday. Let's beat Bristol Rovers on Tuesday before we consider bringing on Omar Bogle or changing to a more defensive formation.