A battling Charlton win against play-off contenders Barnsley has consolidated Dean Holden's fine start as manager and increased the feel-good factor in SE7.
Make no mistake, Barnsley played some really good passing football and looked like scoring until Rak-Sakyi shut the door on the hour. The Charlton defence was stretched at times but they fought wilfully to keep their opponents out. A warm-up injury to Steve Sessegnon, saw a late Charlton reshuffle as debutant Todd Kane switched to left back and Sean Clare went back in on the right.
Kane was trying desperately hard to make an impression and he was guilty of a couple of errors but overall he looked promising and was particularly assured in the air. Sadly for him, he limped off before half-time as Charlton brought on O'Connell and went to a back three - hopefully nothing serious.
By then though, Charlton were one-up after Tyreece Campbell ran onto a Payne through ball and held his man off long enough to beat Collins with a low shot at his near post for his first Charlton goal. Barnsley managed to hit the bar twice in the first half and Innis and Ness worked over-time to keep them out.
Into the second-half and Barnsley continued to press but we looked better with O'Connell (on for Kane) in a back three. I think Holden could see the writing on the wall and made two early substitutions by bringing Henry and Bonne on for the tiring Payne an Leaburn. The switch worked because Bonne immediately threatened and it was his effort that rebounded off a post for Rak-Sakyi to knock in. We looked better after that and could have had a third.
Aaron Henry floated a great free-kick over the back-line and it was Inniss who got to it first with a diving header from six yards out but it went straight at Collins and he managed to block. Inniss, Clare and Bonne were all carded towards the end as we fought to prevent Barnsley from getting back into the match.
The gate looked much healthier than of late and the Covered End was in louder voice. Three league wins on the spin matches our best sequence of the season and the prospect of relegation looks vanquished. Holden has got the players playing and tactically he looks far better than we have seen since Bowyer. He clearly also spends time understanding what the fans are saying. His explanation of the Bonne signing was word perfect. He acknowledged the social media contra-temps when Bonne initially left for QPR (his "head was turned") as well as his ill-advised trolling of the club/supporters after his August move fell through. I really think that satisfied many supporters and it was interesting that there was an early chant today of "Macauley Bonne, Bonne-Bonne." His role in the second goal helped prove Holden's point, that he could do a job for us in this division and backed Bonne's own insistence that he would prove himself to the supporters.
Personally, I wouldn't have brought him back but with no money to spend and the fact that he's only on a short-term contract, he probably was better than we would could have managed elsewhere (think Doo-doo, Parker or Bogle).
As the month wears on, the chance of Methven's consortium finding the funds and meeting the requirement of their proposed takeover from Sandgaard looks increasingly less likely (fingers-crossed), which would be a blessing in disguise. We have to hope that their failure would open the door for someone with much stronger backing, real credibility and a longer term plan. Perhaps even a deal to finally get rid of Duchatelet as well as Sandgaard.
We just need to hope that there are no offers for any of our better players before the window shuts as I am pretty certain anything would be accepted by a desperate Thomas Sandgaard. The trouble is, the market will know he is in trouble and might see us as an easy touch.
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