Thomas Sandgaard will be a hugely relieved man this evening. After the appallingly poor and unjustified decision to get rid of loyal servant and all-round good guy, Olly Groome, with a cowardly denouement delegated to Tom Rubashow after last night's U23 match, he was in for some stick this evening. He may well have got some but a sparkling Charlton display from the off probably saved him much further embarrassment.
Ben Garner has me eating a slice of Humble Pie as I type this. After his comments to the SLP following Saturday's game when he dodged the question of needing better striker options, he said that he felt we had a lot of goals in the side and that if we continued to play the way we have for spells in games so far this season, they would come.
Well tonight we started brightly, dominated the first half and went in 3-0 up. Jesurun Rak-Sakyi got a start which surprised me a little but he took it with both feet and opened the scoring at the back post after only 11 minutes after Cooper could only parry Stockley's onward header from a sublimely floated pass from Albie Morgan. Morgan was outstanding tonight and with Dobson behind him breaking things up as usual, we were able to attack down the flanks. Clayden (in for Sessegnon) linked up well with Kirk on the left and Clare backed Rak-Sakyi on the other side. Argyle had a ten minute spell from 25 minutes when they called on Wollacott to make a decent diving save low to his right hand post and push out a low shot and then forced him to cut out crosses from both sides.
However, the match really turned on 41 minutes after Stockley found Kirk at the back post with only Wilson covering. Kirk's shot was going in but it struck Wilson's left arm above his shoulder in an unnatural position and he was off. Jayden Stockley gleefully seized the ball and drove it low to the left side of the goal for two-nil.
With the ground buzzing - there were officially 12,393 (1160 Plymouth) - we capped a terrific first half with a last minute screamer from Sean Clare. Having pulled the Plymouth defence around, Jayden Stockley played a long ball square across the outside of the box to Clare who met it on run and piled an unstoppable cross-shot high into Cooper's top right-hand side.
The result was now beyond any realistic doubt and playing against ten men, there looked plenty more to come. Schumacher made three changes for Plymouth at the start of the second-half but they made little difference so he brought on a fourth after 54 minutes. Charlton then followed those from 58-64 minutes when McGrandles (Clare), Leaburn (Rak-Sakyi) and Payne (Fraser) came on to rest the others and match Plymouth's fresher legs. The game had slowed, Plymouth looked content to contain any more damage and we were happy passing around the back to run the clock down.
Substitute Jephcott did get onto a decent cross but couldn't get a far post angle to beat Wollacott. That seemed to spur Plymouth and a few minutes later Whittaker went on a run, cut inside one or two red shirts and opened an angle for himself to slide the ball beyond Wollacott for 3-1. Charlton upped the ante again and five minutes later, Charlie Kirk finally scored. He had hit the side netting three times but this time his far post effort was on target and went in off a desperate defender on the line.
Inniss came on for the tiring O'Connell who did his reputation more good this evening after a solid performance alongside Lavelle. Charlton continued to press and Payne was harrying them with Leaburn down the right. The pair combined after 84 minutes with Leaburn doing well to hold off his man before coming inside and collecting a fortunate deflection from Payne's attempt to cross. it was a snap opportunity from just inside the box but he took a pot-shot across goal and beat Cooper who couldn't get across quickly enough to reach it.
5-1 then with five different scorers. A fine full debut for Charles Clayden and an impressive outing from Rak-Sakyi in addition to his debut goal. Jayden Stockley did a lot of work in front of the back four and deserved his penalty as well as having laid on the opener for Rak-Sakyi. I thought Charlie Kirk had his best game for us so far and the goal may also lift his confidence. Myles Leaburn doesn't need anymore confidence as things stand, he looks like he believes he can score in every game where we are on the front foot.
So, to Saturday and a repeat against Cambridge United at the Valley? The performance this evening will put another thousand on the gate I should think and we may have another thousand back from holiday. Cambridge were hit for four at Portsmouth this evening, so there's every chance.
We really need to make the most of this spell and hope we can bring in a pacey goal-scorer to give us an option we really need to add to our game.
Let's hope this is not a false dawn. I was at the Derby game and first half we were embarrassing. Then we lost to the Wendies when we had done enough for at least a draw.
ReplyDeleteIt sounded like a terrific performance last evening (albeit against ten men for most of the game) If we can produce such a performance against Cambridge then Wycombe (not necessarily five goals) I may begin to believe we're heading the right way.
The pricing of the games is a disaster and needs looking at. No way did 12000 turn up. It was probably half of that.
P.S. I suspect last night's result has ended any hope of another striker coming in.
That's the big fear obviously, especially as we know we are light up front. However, we are undoubtedly playing much better football under Garner so far than we have seen since TS arrived. The pricing is a disaster and I believe the actual gate was c 9000 on Tuesday (1100 Plymouth). I think we will bring in a loan striker but suspect it may not be the warhorse we need.
DeleteRe: Olly Groome. Yes, on the face of things his dismissal does look very poor, but how can you say it was unjustified? After all the club is haemorraging money and this has to be stemmed somehow. You can argue that any slack incurred by losing Ollie will be taken up by the Charlton TV team. Yes, it always hurts when a nice guy is lost to an organisation, but it doesn't mean that that individual is absolutely essential. Sadly, TS is not a registered charity and he is trying to keep Charlton financially stable and that means taking hard and often unpalatable decisions.
ReplyDeleteUnjustified because his role has not been made redundant for starters - they have taken on two others recently who are covering the position and there will be no material cost saving. I think the volume of support and where it has come from surrounding this decision should tell you all you need to know. It's a very poor decision, made for the wrong reasons (most likely personal) and it does not reflect well on the owner.
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