Monday 30 December 2013

"...Wake Up Your Sleepy Head……"

Charlton Athletic 1 - Sheffield Wednesday 1.



If I'm trying to grab the positives from the afternoon at the Valley, I'd have to include, (along with the happiness that at least we didn't lose), the fact that I didn't have far to walk to witness a painful example of Yuletide football.
Those poor sods who made the journey to SE heaven from anything beyond the distance of Dartford were ripped off miserably.

I gave up buying programmes a few years ago when I had to get rid of about 15 years worth, clogging up the spare room.

Yesterday I really wished I had something to read.
It was pretty dull.

There's always some strange/magnificent results at this time of year when form seems to be found and lost with coupon busting results.
After a quick perusal of the odds I noticed we were 175/1 to win 5-0.

I've never been more wrong in my life.

The exuberance and confidence we witnessed just hours before at the Boxing Day win over Brighton was sadly all gone by the time the Wendies rolled into town.

The two teams probably wanted to stroke the ball about and give the crowd a bit of entertainment but the rapidly collapsing pitch meant there wasn't much chance of the ball rolling properly.
I dread to think how awful it will be after the storms this week and the FA Cup game at the weekend.

The first half was poor from both sides, though Wednesday were coping better with the conditions.
Precious little happened though and at half time the teams trudged off with the score still 0-0.

The second half started with a bang when Dale Stephens faked to shoot, made the space and blasted past Kirkland.

At 1-0 up, Charlton were far from home and dry.
Wednesday came back and by the end of the game, Charlton were hanging on.

Wednesday had some good moments and on balance of play deserved to end the game with a point.

Despite this, it is most galling to report that Charlton managed to repel all the Yorkshiremen attacks, except one, that was as clear as day offside.

The referee and the linesman must have been picking their noses as it was a simple, clearcut, obvious no brainer, made all the easier by the 'goal' scorer turning to look at the linesman, obviously expecting a flag before starting his celebration.
We can't blame Wickham, he just poked the ball over the line, it was the officials who made the mistake.

There were some poor decisions all afternoon but only the one that really changed the result of the game.

Later, with both teams hoping for a winner, the officials made another howler that seemed pretty amazing at the time after Kirkland made a fine save.

Semedo was busy congratulating Kirkland on his stop and all the players were busy positioning themselves for a corner.
Yet somehow a goal kick was signalled!

The North, East and even the West stand erupted with anger as everyone, (except the people who really mattered) could see what had happened.
It was just another example of the officials making a hash of it.

We can't blame the officials for our inability to get the ball into the opposition net and we can't blame the officials for our team deciding they'd be quite happy with a draw with 15+ minutes still to play.

Church missed a bit of a sitter so close to the end Wednesday wouldn't have time to respond but it just wasn't to be.

When all is said and done, four points from two home games isn't a terrible return.

No comments: