Drizzle in the air and our lowly position didn’t stop over 7,000 making their way to the Abbey, with over 1400 Charlton fans in the South Stand.
Mitov in goal, Morrison, R Bennett and Jones in defence flanked by L Bennett and Brophy. A shuffle of players in midfield, Knibbs joining Lankester and Digby, with Smith and Ironside up front.
Charlton started the better of the teams attacking the NRE, and won the first corner on 8 minutes.
U’s got a corner a couple of minutes later, but all it did was set up a Charlton break which L Bennett did well to halt.
Brophy got caught in no mans land as a Charlton pass over him into space for Rak-Sakyi to run onto looking a few yards offside, but no flag and he crossed from the goal line for a tap in by Leaburn from 6 yards out with R Bennett unable to cut out the cross. 0-1 after 13 minutes.
A similar Charlton move was helped by Jones missing a tackle, the first cross half cleared but only to an opposition player, this time the cross was headed wide.
Leaburn was not punished for a blatant push on R Bennett near the touchline that pushed him into the advertising board. Being the type of player Ryan is he got up with no histrionics or other reaction. A few minutes later he got his revenge by going in hard on Leaburn, which earned Ryan a booking. Unfortunately Charlton scored from the free kick which was whipped in to the near post to be headed in by Rak-Sakyi. It seemed Mitov was unsighted by a Charlton player standing in an offside position, but of course that rule only applies if CUFC score! 0-2 after 28 minutes.
Just before half time probably the biggest cheer was when the Main Stand linesman finally raised his flag for offside.
Half time: 0-2.
Three changes for the second half, Tracey, Seddon and Worman replacing Knibbs, Smith and Morrison, and a formation change to 4-4-2.
Worman had a shot saved on 51 minutes, and U’s finally put some pressure on the Charlton defence, and almost got a goal when a clearance went just wide of the post for a corner, from which a header was saved. Another cross evaded everyone, then ironside headed just wide. Tracey had a run into the penalty area for a shot which was blocked
71 minutes and another U’s corner was going wide off the head of R Bennett but Jones stuck out his foot to divert the ball into the net. 1-2.
More u’s pressure came to nothing, Tracey seemed to be pushed over in the penalty box but nothing was given.
Mitov had to make a decent save late on, Seddon was boked for a high boot, Brophy was replaced by Williams.
Full time: 1-2.
Another “must Win” game we failed to win, or even draw. It’s the hope that kills you! Perhaps we should just play teams at the top where we have no expectations of anything other than a big defeat.
Charlton were only mid table at the start of the match. The way we played in the first half made them look like Brazil of the 70’s. They seemed to have a couple of extra players in space all over the pitch, and they managed to overload our left side so many times as Brophy didn’t know whether to push up or stay back. The formation change meant he played most of the second half as a full back and we looked much better with Worman playing in the middle.
Ironside is not small, but the 2 central defenders he was up against were huge, so he got little in the air. As usual he was pulled and pushed around with no free kick. Smith did a lot of running, but rarely saw the ball and as usual was caught offside a couple of times.
Liam Bennett as usual had an excellent game, managing to defend well but also support the midfield and attack. Lankester looked much better in the second half too.
To have any chance of escaping relegation we need 2 wins just to get to the top of the relegation places with other teams losing their games in hand.
But I still live in hope.
Terry