Charlton Athletic 0 v MK Dons 2

It happened once again last night. A seemingly guaranteed home win against struggling opposition turned into a poor showing and a humbling defeat. It ends our three game winning run and our unbeaten home start to the season. 

Sadly, we just failed to get going. MK were defending deep and were superbly marshalled once again by Lewington and McEachran. But it was their midfield that kept us at bay and forced us back into that depressing C-shaped passing manouevre across the back four and keeper which has typified so many of our poorest performances in the last two seasons. Playing out from the back is great when you can quickly find space and opportunity but when there is little to aim for and you are quickly pressed it becomes dreadful to watch and you wonder why you bought a season-ticket or paid £30-odd quid for the privilege. At times like these, you need to vary the game and we didn't do it.

Once again we also lacked leadership. Fraser had a poor game against his old club and, for me, has fallen back from the levels he was reaching a few weeks ago. He is again seeing much less of the ball, not finding positions and failing to exert pressure or find players further forward. Dobson has had to do even more work to keep it going but is typically ten yards behind Fraser. 

Last night we tried to play down the wings but the Clare-Campbell and then Clare-Kirk combinations weren't working. Campbell did ok in the first-half, although he fluffed our best chance when firing into the side netting when Stockley was free in space in the centre. Cramp ended his game at the break. Clare was in at left-back for Sessegnon, who eventually replaced him. He is a utility player but left-back is his weakest position and he has no left foot so can be got at. I really don't see much future for Kirk. He flatters to deceive and apart from one tidy low ball across the box last night, he did nothing once again. He receives the ball and can play it back or lay it off when under no pressure but when space runs out he tends to panic. I have forgotten how many times this season he has been given a shooting opportunity and failed to get the shot off or when he has only had a five yard ball to play a colleague in and has over-hit or misplaced it. For a taller lad he also doesn't jump and his heading is poor. 

We were stronger on the right with Egbo-Rak-Sakyi but MK tripled up on the Palace youngster and limited his chances but he did well to make ground and invariably managed to beat two of them before being closed down or losing possession. Jayden Stockley is struggling as the lone striker. He looked better with Leaburn but make-shift partners aren't helping. When he goes right, we play him a left and vice-versa. If he drops back we play it too long etc. He has looked exasperated in recent games and over-critical of the youngsters around him when things have gone wrong and that's not helpful.

Joe Wollacott was my Man-of-the-Match with two very decent saves to keep us in it but he could do nothing with the Will Grigg penalty or the unstoppable 25 yard free-kick which killed the game. 

I am also calling Inniss out once again for another red card. It might have been outside the box and possibly not worthy of a booking ordinarily but he made it easy for the referee. He let his opponent get a yard on him and in his desperation to make up the gap used his left arm and then swerved left to collide with his opponent whose pace carried him several yards into the box as he went down. Like on Saturday Inniss was already carrying a routine early yellow card and he knew it was game over for him and for us. It wasn't one of his red-mist moment assaults on an opponent but it was careless once again and ended any remote hopes of victory. Great on his day but his temperament is such that the logical thing to do when he picks up a first-half yellow is to sub him. You can't afford to carry players like him if you want to be successful. 

We have done very well against the better sides this season and will hope for a repeat of the comfortable home victory over a strong Ipswich side on Saturday at the Valley, just like last season. However, I can see this recent run ending in another defeat and a return to midtable where this team belongs.