Friday 17th May 2019
Football League Play-Off Semi Final Second Leg
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: £21.00
Programme: £5.00
Attendance: 25,248
Unfortunately the days of visiting the Valley regularly are long gone, through a combination of moving further away, my passion for groundhopping, and my disillusionment with the club under the ownership of current Belgian owner since 2014, Roland Duchâtelet. But for me, nothing beats being at the Valley amongst a packed crowd with plenty at stake. Sadly such occasions have been very few and far between at The Valley in recent years, but this fixture fitted the bill perfectly, potentially a nostalgic evening harking back to "the good old days" around the Millennium.
Since my much more regular visits as a season ticket holder up to 2015, The Valley has not seen substantial changes, apart from more "jazzed" up refreshment outlets and various pictures on walls depicting successful scenes from the club's history. But what was new to me today was choosing a seat in the Jimmy Seed (South) Stand. For all of my close 200 previous visits to The Valley, I have sat in one of the other three stands, as the Jimmy Seed stand is usually allocated in its entirety to visiting supporters, but this evening, to satisfy demand of home supporters and with not a huge contingent making their way from South Yorkshire for this game, the stand was divided in two. It would be interesting to watch a game from a new perspective at The Valley, and it certainly made for a lively atmosphere, as I was located close to the dividing line, which was flimsy to say the least, with light sheeting placed along seating, and barely enough stewards manning the lines during the first half, and in the early stages of the game, with tensions running high and plenty of goading from both sides, some rival fans did manage to break through for some confrontations. Happily, it never got out of hand, and the arrival of many policemen in the second half finally settled things down.The programme was a rather eye-watering £5.00, for a bumper issue of 92 pages, but to be fair, it had plenty of interesting material to read, including a season review, and a look at some play-off history, as well as the usual material one would expect of a Football League programme.
Charlton very much came up on the blindside to finish in third place in League One, to the extent that they had never been as high as third all season before beating Rochdale 4-0 at home on the final day. They had won 26 and drawn ten of their 46 league games, three points adrift of the second automatic promotion berth. Doncaster Rovers had been in the play-off places for most of the season, but following 20 wins and 13 draws, they finished in sixth place, only one point inside the play-offs, and 15 points adrift of Charlton's tally. Tonight would be the fifth time the two teams have met this season, Charlton winning 2-0 at home in November, but then lost 0-2 at home in the FA Cup Second Round, in the regular season fixture in March at Doncaster, the game ended 1-1, whilst in the first leg of this play-off tie last Sunday, Charlton won 1-2 away, when after Charlton dominated proceedings and could easily have left with a three goal advantage to bring back to The Valley, a late goal three minutes from time for Doncaster ensures the tie was far from over.
On a dry and mild evening, Charlton got off to a perfect start, when they took the lead on the night and opened up a two goal lead overall with barely two minutes on the clock. Arsenal loanee Krystian Bielik won a free kick 25 yards in light with the left edge of the penalty area, West Ham loanee Josh Cullen floated the ball in, and Bielik headed the ball into the left hand corner, to send The Valley into raptures. Charlton were looking in control of the game and the tie overall, as they continued to threaten, and it was very much against the run of play when Doncaster levelled the scores on the night, with a very good goal. Tommy Rowe ran onto the ball deftly flicked into his path, and with all the time in the world, he strode forward before lashing home a powerful low shot from 25 yards which beat the keeper's dive to nestle in the bottom left corner. And from that point on, the tables turned as the Charlton players struggled to keep possession of the ball, gave it away too freely, and were not picking their men up - fortunately for them, Doncaster were not able to make Charlton pay for far too often being allowed oceans of space, and Charlton did have what looked like a strong shout for a penalty turned down just before the interval, when a goalbound shot hit the arm of Andrew Butler.
The second half was full of intensity but lacking in clearcut chances, although Josh Parker came close to restoring Charlton's two goal overall lead, when he stabbed the ball just wide of the near post from a Lyle Taylor cross. It was looking like Charlton would hold on to win the tie inside 90 minutes, until 2 minutes from time, when Butler sent a far post header from a corner just inside the post. And Doncaster almost won it in stoppage time, when the ball just evaded John Marquis for a tap in at the far post after the ball was fired in low from the right.
But with the overall scoreline locked at 3-3 when the referee blew his whistle for the end of 90 minutes, extra time was required to try to separate the sides. Charlton started much better than they had played for most of normal time, on the front foot, and Charlton were denied another penalty, when the ball hit the hand of Marquis, who certainly moved his arm towards the ball. But it was Doncaster who would score next, to take the lead in the overall tie for the first time. A quick break from their own penalty area culminated in a cross from the right edge of the area by Malik Wilks, and Marquis was all alone at the far post to head the ball into a virtual empty net. But within two minutes, Charlton pulled a goal back on the night, and levelled the scoreline overall, when Lyle Taylor crossed the ball low from the right, the keeper should have claimed the ball but slipped, allowing substitute Darren Pratley to tap the ball home. There were no further real chances for the remainder of extra time, and so penalty kicks were required to decide who would progress to the final at Wembley.
The first seven penalties were executed expertly, with Charlton's Chris Solly, Josh Cullen, Lyle Taylor and Joe Aribo finding the back of the net, and Doncaster's Ben Whiteman, Kieran Sadler and Ali Crawford doing likewise for Doncaster, but their fourth penalty, by Marquis, was saved by the Charlton keeper Dillon Phillips low to his left. Advantage Charlton, but that was wiped out when Naby Sarr had his penalty saved by Marko Marosi to his left. But Rowe sent his penalty wide of the left hand post, and that was enough to ensure Charlton's progress to the final, and cue a mass, but very good natured pitch invasion by the Charlton fans.
A very harsh way to decide a play-off tie, and harsh on Doncaster, who did play really well tonight, and Charlton so very nearly were left to rue not killing the game in the first when they had the opportunity, nor closing the game out when they went ahead on the night. But Charlton can now look forward to their first visit to the "New" Wembley, and an encounter with Sunderland, whom they famously beat on penalties after a 4-4 draw in 1998. A quite remarkable achievement by Lee Bowyer, having had to contend with such difficult circumstances behind the scenes, with the club still up for sale by a disinterested owner, who sanctioned the sale of top scorer Karlan Grant in January without an adequate replacement.
Video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here.
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