League 1 Play-off Semi-Final Second Leg
Score 2-1 (3-3 on aggregate after extra time, 4-5 on penalties)
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: £17.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 21,521
Match Rating: 4
For a Charlton fan, this was the biggest game for many a season, a rare highlight after several disappointing seasons that has seen Charlton plummet from being an established Premiership club to the third tier of English football in just four seasons. The first leg of this play-off semi final set the tie up deliciously, with Swindon recording a 2-1 victory at the County Ground, although in truth they should have headed to London for the second leg with a more comfortable cushion, squandering some wonderful chances. The two teams have been evenly matched all season, with only two points separating the teams in the final league standings, and both regular league games ended in draws.
For this game, I was seated in the Upper North Stand, directly behind the goal, which offered an excellent view of the action, with plenty of legroom and the rows are sufficiently inclined. Indeed, The Valley is a fine place to watch football, with large concourses en route to the stands, with only the Lower North Stand feeling rather cramped and with a low incline between seats and the South Stand, given to away fans, which is somewhat cramped. As usual, the programme at Charlton is an above average publication, with plenty of readable articles of interest to home, away and neutral fans.
The game itself had a most unfortunate opening, when the Swindon goalkeeper, David Lucas, collided with his own player and fell awkwardly in the first minute of the game, and after around five minutes of treatment, had to be helped from the field with a shoulder injury. The more the first half went on, the more Charlton dominated the game both in terms of possession and chances, and it was no surprise when they took the lead on the night to level the scores overall on 27 minutes, when Simon Ferry stabbed the ball into his own net, and on the stroke of half time, Charlton took the lead in the tie for the first time when Dave Mooney fired in from 16 yards with a good finish.
At half time, with Charlton flooding forward at will and Swindon looking increasingly desperate in defence, Charlton looked a good bet to make it to the Wembley final, all the more so when Swindon were reduced to ten men on 67 minutes when Gordon Greer was rightly sent off for an awful high lunge on Deon Burton. However, five minutes later, Swindon brought the scores level on aggregate thanks to some shocking defending allowing Danny Ward to poke the ball past Darren Randolph in the Charlton goal. From this point on, play switched from end to end, and either side could have won it, and deep in to injury time at the end of normal time, Charlie Austin spun past Miguel Angel Llera for a potential one-on-one with the goalkeeper, until Llera rugby tackled Austin to the ground. A well deserved red card for Llera, but this probably saved the game for Charlton and ensured extra time would be called for.
Extra time started much the same as normal time ended, although chances dried up the longer it went on, probably with the fear of losing the game overtaking the desire to win it. That said, Charlton had two glorious chances to win the game in the second period of injury time, but it was not to be and the match headed for a penalty shoot out. Nicky Bailey was the unfortunate player to be the only person to miss from the ten penalty kicks, which meant that Swindon booked a day out to Wembley. There are pros and cons of the play-off system as I have discussed previously, but overall there are probably more pros than cons. A penalty shoot-out to decide promotion has always seemed wholly unsatisfactory to me, either a replay, awarding promotion to the higher placed team in the league or the winner of the aggregate score in the games between the two teams during the season would be possible fairer options.
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