A match report can be viewed by clicking here, copied and pasted below.
Kevin Nolan’s Valley View: Charlton Athletic 2-3 Morecambe
A dire afternoon at The Valley placed the focus on an opposition striker with something to prove. KEVIN NOLAN reports from The Valley.
Morecambe striker Cole Stockton’s 2022-23 season was nothing short of sensational. Scorer of 23 league goals in 44 appearances for a struggling team, he attracted covetous interest in the lower divisions and it was regarded as a coup for the Shrimps when his services were secured for the current campaign.
Last season’s haul included a variety of stunning goals as well as a number of the more mundane finishes on which centre forwards often place more value. He seemed set to take League One by storm this term but he arrived at The Valley with only five goals to his name although, ominously, one of them was the matchwinner in Morecambe’s 1-0 victory over Wycombe Wanderers last week.
Built like a pocket battleship, Stockton wears number 9 to the manner born. He can look after himself, as Charlton found out the hard way when he scored both goals in his side’s 2-1 win in SE7 last season and converted a vital penalty to help the Shrimps recover from a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 at the Mazuma Stadium.
Out of favour recently, he returned in time to continue his personal vendetta against the Addicks with two more goals, the first of which showcased first his taste for the spectacular, followed later by the kind of finish more reliant on his poacher’s instincts.
Eight desultory minutes had slipped by, during which Stockton had barely featured. when he produced an opener of frightening power. Pouncing on Aaron Henry’s carelessness in possession, he bludgeoned a rising, 35-yard rocket into the right top corner. Goalkeeper Ashley Maynard-Brewer was beaten, as they used to say, all ends up.
Early in the second half, the uninhibited Scouser doubled his tally in more mundane style. Reacting to hesitation between Maynard-Brewer and centre back Michael Hector, he had enough speed to reach Jensen Weir’s low, diagonal ball and poke it over the line.
Cole Stockton – might be advisable not to mention the name around these parts for a while – not until a serious effort is made to recruit him anyway.
Stockton’s goals were punctuated by an equaliser in the first of three minutes added to the first period. Battling his way to the leftbyline, Jack Payne justified his retention after claiming the winner at MK Dons in midweek by improvising a hard, low cross into a congested six-yard area. Whether by accident or design, top scorer Jesurun Rak-Sakyi turned his 14th goal of a productive loan spell past Connor Ripley.
Equality at the interval was an undeserved bonus for the Addicks, who were a disorganised rabble during most of the opening 45 minutes. Their chronic inconsistency is, by now, an article of faith and it’s difficult to recall a foot that was put right.
They were victimised, to be fair, by inefficient referee David Rock, who showed little grasp of the admittedly unofficial advantage rule when Henry was clearly fouled by Jacob Bedeau. Whistling instantly, Rock failed to observe that Charlton had sliced through the visitors’ resistance and that Payne had netted from 10 yards. It would be some consolation to hear that the hasty official apologised to Dean Holden for his rookie error – heartening but unlikely.
After restoring the visitors’ lead, Stockton wasn’t quite finished for the afternoon. Just past the hour, he found space to unleash another ferocious drive from distance which, on this occasion, was saved at full length by Maynard-Brewer. Following up alertly, Weir made easy work of tapping home the rebound.
Languishing third from bottom of League One but easily the better of two substandard teams, Morecambe were the most recent recipients of the fabled helping hand which Charlton extend to the lower orders. Port Vale will be along next Saturday, expecting similar largesse.
Weir’s goal provided Derek Adams’ men with an important two-goal cushion which turned out to be vital. There were still eleven regulation minutes remaining when substitute Scott Fraser reduced the arrears by turning sharply on to Sean Clare’s hard cross and drilling a low shot beyond Ripley.
Those minutes – and six more added – applied belated pressure on the Seasiders but they emerged intact from one or two inelegant goalmouth scrambles before heading home with three priceless points.
Apparently unable to motivate his fading squad, meanwhile, Holden has a huge task ahead of him this summer. Drained by their inability to make a meaningful impression on a frankly ordinary division, the season’s end can hardly come soon enough for both players and fans.
Even his normally indefatigable skipper George Dobson is feeling the effects of a nine-month waste of time, youngsters like Miles Leaburn and Tyreece Campbell have wilted under the demands made on them and a crushing sense of anti-climax pervades The Valley.
Bright spark Rak-Sakyi will no doubt lead an exodus from the training ground and it remains to be seen whether the visionary young manager gets the help he needs to prepare a promotion-challenging group.
Without wishing to make it personal, it’s time for our wandering minstrel of an owner to hang up his guitar, put his hand in his pocket and lend an overdue hand. Or, better yet, sell the club and let someone else have a go. Preferably someone who doesn’t think it’s all about him, or her, but has a humbler attitude to a great club in need of loving care.
Charlton: Maynard-Brewer, Clare, Hector, Thomas, Sessegnon (Kanu 69), Dobson, Morgan, Payne (Campbell 61), Henry (Fraser 61), Rak-Sakyi, Leaburn. Not used: Wollacott, Kane, Egbo, Mitchell. Booked: Leaburn
Morecambe: Ripley, Gibson, Rawson, Crowley (Taylor 72), Stockton, Gnahoua (Delaney 86), Weir (Niasse 86), Bedeau, Cooney, Austerfield, Souare (Melbourne 52). Not used: Smith, Hunter, Simeu.
Referee: David Rock. Official attendance: 13,347 (220 visiting).
