Pre-season Friendly
The Oval, Eastbourne
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 216
On a very pleasant and sunny evening, there were plenty of enticing games to choose from locally - it was a shame they all fell on the same evening. But this was always the stand-out game for me, giving me the opportunity to watch a Charlton team, even if it promised to be a very youthful team on display this evening. It would also be interesting to visit one of my local clubs seemingly very much on the up, having had a rebrand as they celebrated their 125th anniversary season.
There have been a number of cosmetic improvements in and around The Oval since my last visit just before Christmas. A fixture board now greets visitors at the ground's perimeter fence, and club badges have been placed on the outer walls of the clubhouse and tea bar. More substantial changes have been made to the club crest and playing kit, adopting new club colours of red and blue replacing the previous black and white. This is part of club rebranding for the 125 year anniversary season, apparently reflecting the club's colours when it was formed. For this evening's game, unusually for a friendly, but most appreciated, team line-ups were written up on a whiteboard, with not "A. Triallist" in sight. Another very pleasant surprise was that programmes were issued for this match, a colourful 12 page publication which included welcome messages from the manager and chairman.
When I last visited The Oval last December, Eastbourne United were in a desperate situation languishing nine points adrift at the bottom of the Southern Combination League Premier Division with just two points on the board. Green shoots were evident though, with an ambitious new chairman having just taken over and with some new signings in the team, they won that night, and they would go on to achieve a great escape to survive on goal difference by three goals. The club does seem to be on an upward curve, with an upbeat feel to it, and they look sure to have a more comfortable season ahead. Charlton Athletic's first team squad are preparing for a return to the Championship, but as expected, with games at Ebbsfleet United tonight and Dagenham & Redbridge tomorrow night, an Academy squad would be taking the field here tonight, with Head of Academy Steve Avory in charge.
This would be an entertaining game to watch, played at a decent pace and with a competitive feel to it. It was an interesting clash between a very young Charlton team, most of the players having had little if any experience of playing against a senior team but were comfortable with the ball, whereas Eastbourne United, whilst containing plenty of very young players too, also had some experienced, more "streetwise" players to organise and drive their team on. Both teams created some decent chances to open the scoring, until Eastbourne United did so on 43 minutes. Sam Schaaf ran onto a poor back pass, the keeper coming out to close him down, but Schaaf managed to sidestep the keeper before firing the ball from quite a tight angle from the edge of the area into the net.
The game continued in a similar pattern in the second half, both teams creating some decent chances, and Eastbourne United doubled their lead on 75 minutes, George Landais whipped the ball in from the right, and Will Gordon volleyed the ball home from a central position, an excellent finish. They had chances to further increase their lead, although in the closing minutes, Charlton applied some decent pressure and came close to grabbing a consolation goal. But as always, the result in a friendly counted for nothing, and both clubs would have felt happy with a good, competitive run-out.
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