Sunday 3 October 2021

Fleetwood Town 1 v Charlton Athletic 2

Nigel Adkins prayers were answered in the north-west with his first away win of the season. The jury was out on whether or not he had lost the dressing room. Tuesday's pathetic collapse at home to Bolton suggested that the players had given up and that Fleetwood might be the latest side to roll us over.

Instead, his side competed for the 90 minutes and whilst there were still some worrying moments, they stood up to the task and deserved their victory. Chris Gunter, a target for the boo-boys, was back in the side at right-back alongside Lavelle, Famewo and Souare. The defence stood up fairly well aside from being opened up for a first-half chance which saw Camps through on goal but squander his opportunity. 

After that, Jonathan Leko scored another Leko special with a shimmie and another low hard cross-shot which beat the home keeper at his far post to give the Addicks breathing space. Fleetwood equalised from a 20 yard free-kick to which we appeared to make an appalling poor wall. The shot was hard and just over head height and it beat MacGillivray over his head but may have moved or taken a deflection in flight. As the second half wore on we had the chances to kill the game off but were profligate. Josh Davison hit the far post from an angle and Elliott Lee might have done better from a couple of decent positions before Leko squared for substitute Jayden Stockley to rifle home from six yards. 

We had to suffer a late bombardment as Fleetwood threw everything at us but we saw out six minutes of added time and the players looked mightily relived at the whistle. I think we still need to remind ourselves that this was only Fleetwood Town, fellow strugglers, and that they had, had their moments. Much more will be needed to repeat the feat at Lincoln in a fortnight. 

Harry Arter was back in the starting line-up alongside Alex Gilbey and whilst both were involved, Arter's role seemed to be limited to very short passes around him, too many of which went backwards for me. Charlie Kirk also came back into the side and whilst he saw more of the ball than he did last time out, he still looked off the pace and struggling to beat his man. 

In summary, I still don't think Adkins knows what his best side is but clearly he is relying on experience at the moment to try and shore up his reign.

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