Saturday 26th October 2024, Kick-off 15.00
EFL League One
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £4.00
Attendance: 24,692 (2,647 away)
A match report can be read by clicking here, also copied and pasted below.
Brief video highlights can be viewed by clicking here
Kevin Nolan’s Valley View: Charlton Athletic 2-2 Wrexham
Plenty of people at The Valley on Saturday may have been there to see if Wrexham’s owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were in the directors’ box. But for everyone else, there was a game of football to watch, as KEVIN NOLAN reports.
As hospitable as usual, Charlton went out of their way to make Wrexham feel at home on Saturday. In fact, they made a huge fuss of them, making sure there was a welcome in The Valley, even cobbling together one of those cheesy hybrid scarves that commemorate historic meetings between old rivals.
Short of twinning Charlton with Wrexham, it’s hard to see how they could have done more.
A bumper crowd turned up for a fixture that hasn’t occurred all that often in Charlton’s fixture list, chiefly because Wrexham haven’t spent much of their lengthy history – they were founded as long ago as 1864 – in the same division as their hosts.
But they arrived in SE7 on the crest of a wave that has seen them climb out of non-league competition to establish themselves among League One’s promotion pacesetters. It probably won’t last but you can hardly blame them for indulging in a spot of condescension while it does.
Having pulled out all the stops off-field, Charlton did their best when the action started. They even provided two of Wrexham’s outfield starters and, in George Dobson, one of this lively game’s best contributors.
Dobson didn’t exactly make the earth move but did enough to confirm that he was always more than the defensive workhorse some Charlton fans made him out to be. Likewise,
Elliott Lee had his noisy detractors but has settled in as part of the visitors’ solid midfield.
Nathan Jones — Jones the manager, colloquially – meanwhile had problems to solve and holes to fill. Only two months into the season, his squad has been decimated by a spate of serious injuries.
You could almost sense his despair when, after just four minutes, he lost Tennai Watson to a sinister-looking disability, with Rarmani Edmonds-Green stepping into the jinxed right-back position, already vacated by long term injury victim Kayne Ramsay. It’s a relief to report that REG (as he prefers to be known) did a good job.
It hadn’t been the start the Addicks needed but just past the quarter-hour, it got decidedly worse. Alex Mitchell’s foul near the right touchline gave setpiece specialist Tom O’Connor a chance to swing a treacherously swerving free kick into Charlton’s congested six-yard box, where Conor Coventry’s efforts to clear succeeded only in sending the ball past a helpless Will Mannion. It seemed at that point that local hospitality was beginning to get out of hand.
While the Addicks were still reeling from their various misfortunes, Dobson should have doubled the visitors’ lead but volleyed another of O’Connor’s accurate free kicks over the bar. His miss was to prove costly when Charlton unexpectedly equalised. Their goal was created by Coventry’s deep cross from the left touchline, which reached Macaulay Gillesphey at the far post and was looped back into the far corner by the full-back’s header.
Neither strike will trouble League One’s Goal of the Season competition but they all count. And since it was Gillesphey’s first for his new club, this one counted more than most.
Charlton had no sooner levelled the scoreline than they came within inches of conceding again. And it was Lee who popped up on the edge of their penalty area to clip the crossbar when meeting a low ball in from the right. His prolific colleague Paul Mullin then stepped up to take the free kick he’d earned after being fouled by Josh Edwards. But from 20 inviting yards he smashed it the proverbial miles over the bar.
Before the break, referee Sam Purkiss succumbed to a strained muscle injury he picked up in the early going and was replaced by the fourth official, Alan Dale.
At the time, the substitution hardly seemed to matter but an appreciative Valley was to be grateful to Mr Dale’s eagle eyesight mere seconds before he called a halt to the five minutes added on to an eventful second half. More of that later.
The second period was in its infancy when livewire Tyreece Campbell wriggled through a posse of anxious Welshmen to shoot hard and low for the left corner but was foiled by goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo’s outstretched right foot.
As the half wore on, the routine booing of Wrexham skipper James McLean provided its usual dreary background, not that this hardbitten veteran is visibly bothered. He did oblige by picking up his usual booking, though.
An honourable draw seemed the limit of local ambitions until substitute Andy Cannon entered the fray. Almost his first touch saw him finish the chaos caused by Dobson’s buccaneering run at the heart of the home defence.
As the ball squirted to him on the right, Cannon shot low past Mannion and Charlton were doomed, so it seemed, to defeat. Terry Taylor’s improvised volley, saved smartly by Okonkwo, was apparently their last hurrah. But there was a wicked sting in this game’s tail. Or tale, if you prefer.
An almighty goalmouth scramble in the seventh of five added minutes was all but impossible to sort out by almost everyone bar deputy ref Dale. He was adamant that Max Cleworth’s guilty hand had interfered with a goalbound shot and was not about to be swayed by any argument to the contrary.
A penalty it was, and Matty Godden – not one to look gift horses in the mouth – smashed it unstoppably past Okonkwo. The Addicks, it seemed, were all out of hospitality for the afternoon. It’s better to give than receive, so we’re told. Er… nah!
Charlton: Mannion, Watson (Green 5), Alex Mitchell, Edwards, Coventry (Hylton 80), Tyreece Campbell, Berry (Alan Campbell 62), Docherty (Taylor 62), Edwards, Anderson (Leaburn 46), Godden. Not used: Maynard-Brewer, Small. Booked: Leaburn, Hylton, Edwards.
Wrexham: Okonkwo, Cleworth. O’Connor, McClean, Palmer (Faal 85) Mullin, Dobson, Rathbone (Cannon 70), Scarr, Barnett (Revan 85), Lee. Not used: Burton, O’Connell, James. Booked: Revan, Rathbone.
Referee: Sam Purkiss (Alan Dale 36). Official attendance: 24,692 (2,647 visiting).
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