Football League Play-Off Final
Wembley Stadium, London
Admission: £30.00
Programme: £10.00
Attendance: 76,155
This would be almost certainly my last game of the season, certainly for a men's game, and without doubt I would leave the best and biggest occasion of the season till late. For me personally, perhaps ever, as it would be the first time I would watch Charlton Athletic at Wembley and at a cup final (of sorts), having had to miss the club's last visit to the old Wembley back in 1998, which was famously also in a play off final, also against Sunderland, which ended in a 4-4 draw after extra time, with Charlton winning the penalty shoot-out to claim promotion to the Premier League.
Whilst I had only watched Charlton three times this season, one of those to watch the semi-final against Doncaster Rovers, partly due to my enjoyment of groundhopping there days but mostly in despair for the atmosphere around the club under the disastrous reign of Roland Duchâtelet, which is now in limbo as he claims he tries to sell the club, I would certainly move heaven and earth to get a ticket for this occasion. As it turned out, it would be a fairly straightforward process, with plenty of tickets still available when they were released to all those with a purchasing history with the club on Monday. With the better (and more expensive) seats being snapped up by season ticket holders in the first two days of sale, I chose a seat that would offer an excellent panoramic view of the action - fairly close to the half way line, but being in the upper tier, quite some way from the pitch. As to be expected, the atmosphere was terrific in the build up to the game, with the tube rammed to capacity, and the walk along Wembley Way from Wembley Park stadium to the ground was full of energy, excitement, nervousness, but all in very good spirits. I always buy programmes given the opportunity, and I certainly wanted a souvenir of the big occasion today, a sentiment that is clearly taken advantage of on days like this, with an eye-watering £10.00 being charged today. Whilst it could hardly be described as value of money for the price tag alone, it was a very good programme, A4 sized, glossy, consisting of 100 pages and packed with information about both clubs and the history of the play-offs.
Given the background of Charlton's ownership situation, resulting in a squad being so threadbare that manager Lee Bowyer has not been able to name a full complement of substitutes on the bench at times, top scorer Karlan Grant being sold in January without an adequate replacement being brought in, not to mention the on-off saga of the club being sold and Duchâtelet's erratic (to put it kindly) ownership, it has been an incredible of achievemt from the manager and the squad to finish the league season in third place, and then reach the Play-Off final. To do that, they nearly made a mess of things against Doncaster Rovers, after a commanding away performance in the first leg from which they should have taken a three goal lead back to The Valley but ended up with just the one goal lead thanks to a late goal conceded. Doncaster would win the second leg, 2-3 after extra time, after a disappointing performance from Charlton, but they prevailed in the end, 4-3 on penalties. Sunderland had looked a good bet to claim automatic promotion for much of the season, but a disappointing end to their season saw them finish in fifth place, vector beating Portsmouth 1-0 on aggregate thanks to a 1-0 home win in the first leg. Various omens may have favoured Sunderland. They played at Wembley less than two months ago, when they lost on penalties to Portsmouth, and in the league encounters between Charlton and Sunderland, Sunderland won 2-1 at home thanks to a very late goal in added on time on the opening day of the season, whilst the return fixture at The Valley finished 1-1. Sunderland's record at Wembley has not been good either, not winning there since lifting the FA Cup in 1973.
As a Charlton fan, all I was hoping for was that we would not freeze on the big occasion, and that we would get off to a solid start. Unfortunately, it turned out to be something of a nightmare start for the Addicks. With 4 minutes on the clock, defender Naby Sarr, under no pressure, decided to pass back to keeper Dillon Phillips, but it was too firmly struck and to the side of Phillips' boot, which the ball rolled past and into the empty net, with the Charlton fans holding their heads in disbelief. And perhaps not surprisingly, that spurred Sunderland on and there was a feeling that Charlton really needed to weather the storm to stay in the game. That they did, and slowly the tide turned as Charlton managed to mount some attacks, and they equalised on 35 minutes, when Lyle Taylor crossed low from the right across the box, evading everyone until on-loan Ben Purrington tapped the ball in at the far post, to send the Charlton masses into wild celebration, with keeper Phillips undoubtedly the most relieved man in the house. What a time it was for Purrington to score his first Charlton goal, and his first ever league goal. With no further real chances during the remainder of the half, the scoreline remained level at 1-1.
As good as Naby Sarr has been for Charlton this season, he was looking like an accident waiting to happen today, not just with how own goal, but also he had picked up a yellow card and came close to giving away a penalty. For the most part, the second half was a battle with few goalscoring opportunities, but what would turn out to be a key moment was the introduction of Johnny Williams on 70 minutes. Williams endured what appeared to be an unhappy, injury plagued spell on loan with Sunderland last season, and his introduction really injected plenty of momentum and attacking intent to his team, as he ran at players, drawing fouls, and generally causing a real nuisance of himself to the Sunderland defence. But there were no real clear-cut chances created and it looked certain that the game would head into extra time, with strong echos of that 1998 play-off final between the two clubs. But four minutes into added on time, the ball was swung into the box, and after an initial shot was blocked, Patrick Bauer struck the ball home, via deflection off a defender, to send the players and fans into wild celebrations. With 6 seconds left of normal time, there was no time for Sunderland to respond, and Charlton defied a traumatic season off the pitch with promotion on it. The celebrations continued long after the final whistle, with the Charlton players receiving medals and a trophy, whilst the fans sang and danced along to club and celebratory tracks.
It was a cruel way for Sunderland to lose, but arguably they should have sealed automatic promotion, without the need for the lottery of the play-offs. As for Charlton, one fears copious dollops of reality will soon kick in, with the enormity of the task of competing in the second tier next season with a manager who wants to sell and does not want to invest, many of the squad will be out of contract or return to their parent clubs this summer, and even the future of Lee Bowyer and coach Johnnie Jackson very much up in the air. But such worries are for the future, as Charlton fans can enjoy a rare moment of glory.
Video highlights of the match can be viewed by clicking here.
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