Charlton Athletic 2 v 2 Wrexham

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). 

Charlton Athletic 1 v 1 Stockport County

Saturday 19th October 2024, Kick-off 15.00

EFL League One

The Valley, Charlton

Admission: Season Ticket

Programme: £4.00

Attendance: 13,711 (1,242 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 1-1 Stockport County

Stockport County were Saturday’s visitors at The Valley, but they didn’t endear themselves to our match reporter KEVIN NOLAN.

Both Stockport County and Charlton Athletic have been around the block a few times,  but have made it almost their business to avoid each other, like ships passing in the night. 

They have met on ten occasions, only six of which have been league games. 

Their paltry record of rivalry has been largely explained by the company they have kept. The Addicks have operated at a superior level to the Hatters and kept it that way until two recent promotions established Saturday’s visitors as their equals. 

There were times during this exercise in frustration when County looked on course to prove themselves as even more equal than their frustrated hosts.

A ninth-minute lead, provided by Louie Barry’s efficient penalty, seemed likely to prove enough for Dave Challinor – he of the record-breaking long throw – to guide his rule-bending side to all three points.

A second-half equaliser forced home by first-half substitute Rarmani Edmonds-Green spared local blushes but the overall feeling at The Valley  was of a golden opportunity missed. 

Edmonds-Green’s first goal for Charlton did, however, scupper County’s shameless ambition to choke the life out of these sorry proceedings. 

Time-wasting has always been an unavoidable part of the beautiful game but in the hands of such sophisticated practitioners, it has become almost an artform. 

We thought the recent visit of Blackpool had set new boundaries but cynical Stockport proved us wrong. They have even rehearsed to perfection the practice of colliding with each other and forcing the referee to summon first aid for supposed head injuries which inevitably amounted to nothing. We understand their clash with Blackpool will be played without a ball and is to be billed as a Festival of Northern Soullessness.

A word of support for referee Tom Reeves, by the way. His was an impossible task but he actually booked three of the visitors for variously delaying the game. The third of those cautions was issued to centre-half Fraser Horsfall, who was found guilty of impeding Will Mannion’s quick-release attempt to clear his lines. 

The booking came home to haunt Horsfall when he scythed down Macaulay Gillesphey later on and was sent off for a second yellow card. Too late to materially affect the outcome, Horsfall’s dismissal did at least vindicate Reeves to some extent.

Making a deceptively bright start, County showed briefly they had more to offer than the dark arts. They were gifted their ominously early lead when Lewis Bate’s hopeful punt down the middle brought chaos to Charlton’s central defence and lured Mannion from his line to deal with the unnecessary danger. 

The panic-stricken keeper ruthlessly removed Nick Powell from the awkward equation by laying him out, leaving an initially hesitant Reeves little alternative but to console the stricken striker with a painfully-earned penalty. Barry made no mistake from the spot.

Finding themselves unexpectedly ahead, the visitors’ attitude changed dramatically. What they had they clearly meant to hold and they made no bones about the methods they intended to employ in realising their  ambitions. They virtually disappeared as an attacking force but their defending was stubborn and pragmatic. They also rode their luck occasionally as Charlton squandered several acceptable chances.

Not that all of the Addicks’ efforts amounted to misses. Only five minutes after Barry’s goal, the impressive Tyreece Campbell picked up Karoy Anderson’s pass, cut in from the left and forced Corey Addai into a smart low save. From the resultant corner, Anderson met Terry Taylor’s delivery with a sharp header which brought County’s towering keeper into quickfire action again.

Charlton were beginning to fancy their chances when, shortly before the half-hour mark, they lost their buccaneering right-back Kayne Ramsay following an innocent clash with Jay Mingi. Frankly, the interval arrived as a relief to Nathan Jones’ struggling side. A second half reset was vital. And it eventually paid off.

Another of Tyreece Campbell’s crisp efforts was deflected narrowly wide before Charlton’s fortunes abruptly took a turn for the better. A short corner routine initiated by Thomas set up Anderson to test Addai from close range but the keeper’s resistance was finally ended by Edmonds- Green, who rammed home the rebound. Charlton’s all-business reaction to their equaliser promised more.

Still sticking to their negative, time-stifling policy, meanwhile, Stockport seemed there for the taking as their erstwhile victims sensed weakness. 

Substitute Miles Leaburn, still finding his way back from long term injury, posed fresh problems but fired a last gasp chance across goal. There was to be no last-gasp victory but losing to another of these anti-football rabbles was unthinkable!

This report salutes 105-year-old Charlton fan Jack Simmons, who attended Saturday’s event. Way to go, young Jack!

Charlton: Mannion, Ramsay (Edmonds-Green 37), Gillesphey, Alex Mitchell, Tyreece Campbell, Docherty (Leaburn 62). Taylor (Dixon 90+1), Edwards. Anderson, Godden, Allan Campbell (Berry 46). Not used: Maynard-Brewer, Small, M’bick. Booked: Anderson, Nathan Jones.

Stockport: Addai, Touray, Bate, Horsfall, Powell (Fevrier 64), Pye, Connolly, Mingi, Wootton (Fiorini 79), Barry (Diamond 78), Norwood (Bailey 65). Not used: Hinchliffe, Huges, Olaofe.  Booked: Pye, Norwood, Fiorini, Horsfall (2) sent off.

Referee: Tom Reeves.