EFL League One
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 13,839 (711 away)
Today would be Charlton's second home game of the season, and after plenty of pre-season optimism with the infectious positive mental energy from owner Thomas Sandgaard and manager Nigel Adkins, it hasn't taken long for doom and gloom to come back in abundance.
Since the hard watch which was the goalless draw at home to Sheffield Wednesday, a home defeat to AFC Wimbledon in the League Cup, followed by two 1-2 away defeats, at Oxford United and MK Dons, had ensured that the early optimism amongst fans has already taken a big hit, and with a worrying lack of squad depth, an uninspiring midfield, and a recurring desperate tactic of hoofing it up to Stockley and hope for the best, a positive result is required quickly to stop the situation becoming ugly again - we had dearly hoped that those days were behind us now, with the departures of Roland Duchatelet and East Street Investments. Wigan opened their season with 2-1 defeat at Sunderland, before beating Champtionship club Hull City on penalties in the League Cup, and then beating Rotherham United at home 1-0, and most recently drawing at home to Wycombe Wanderers 1-1. An added dimension was added to this game with the close season transfer of Addicks keeper Ben Amos to Wigan, being replaced by Craig MacGillivray - who may have been Portsmouth's player of the season last season, but has looked rather shaky and erratic in Charlton's colours so far. After their very existence had looked in as much danger as Charlton's in the recent past, Wigan have managed to add some real quality to their squad, signing up last season's top scorer in league, Charlie Wyke, from Sunderland, and James McLean and ex Charlton player Jordan Cousins, who have both spent most of their careers at Championship level and above, as well as several other very decent players.
Unfortunately for the Addicks, this game followed an all-too-familiar pattern of their previous games this season. Not playing too badly, looking fairly solid defensively for the most part, and having plenty of possession in midfield, but with precious little threat going forward, no end product, not really looking like scoring for the most part, with Stockley isolated and Albie Morgan woefully lacking in his ability to perform the number 10 role, both in terms of supporting Stockley and his taking of set-pieces. In truth, Wigan should have led by half-time, when a Jordan Jones hit the crossbar with a header, and MacGillivray pulled off a couple of very good and important saves. Somehow, the scoreline remained goalless at the break.
Charlton started the second half strongly, but still for the most part barely threatened the Wigan goal. New signing Charlie Kirk came close a couple of times, but saw his shots go beyond the far post, but as it was looking like the game was heading fast for a goalless draw, Wigan scored on 88 minutes when Max Power sent in an inviting cross from the right, and Tendayi Darikwa headed home at the far post. And the visitors made absolutely sure of the three points in the sixth minute of added on time when the ball was intercepted deep in Charlton's half, Stephen Humphries strode forward with the ball to the half way line, before threading a perfect low ball through the Charlton defence to find the well timed run of James McLean, who rounded MacGillivray, who had come out out close the angle, before slotting home into an empty net. That was too much for some Charlton fans, with a chorus of boos, chants of "you're not fit to wear the shirt" and "We're fu**ing sh*t". The frustration is understandable, after hopes were raised by owner Thomas Sandgaard for a successful season pushing for promotion, but currently the squad just looks very weak and thin, and with game after game of no real attacking threat being posed. The booing and chants are probably the last thing this young group of players need. The effort and desire seemed to be there, for the majority of the players at least - but the quality individually and collectively simply is not for the most part. With just over a week of the August transfer window remaining, some decent signings do need to be made to avoid this being a season stuck in mid-table mediocrity....at best. One of the few positives was MacGillivray demonstrating that he is indeed a very solid keeper, and indeed it was he who prevented a heavier defeat.
Video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here :-
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