Pre Season Friendly
at the Valley, Floyd Road
Charlton Athletic (1) 1
Harry Darling 4 OG
Swansea City (0) 2
Joel Piroe 53, Ryan Manning 85
Attendance: 3,345 (inc. 369 away fans)
Point & hope mobile phone picture gallery: Click HERE
 |
| Keith Peacock |
Charlton Athletic:
Wollacott, Clare, Inniss, O'Connell, Sessegnon (Chin 74), Morgan, McGrandles (Payne 46), Fraser, Leaburn (Henry 74), Stockley (C), Blackett-Taylor (Kanu 74)
Unused subs - Harness, Bakrin, Elerewe, Santos, Williams
Swansea City:
Fisher, Latibeaudiere (Manning 72), Wood, Darling, Naughton; Fulton, Grimes (C), Sorinola (McFayden 86), Piroe, Paterson (Ntcham 72), Obafemi (Congreve 80)
Unused subs - Benda, Cooper, Cullen
Preamble:
A managerial timeline since Thomas Sandgaard took control of Charlton Athletic on 25 September 2020 seems like a good place to start this afternoon's overview:
On 15 March 2021, with the Addicks sitting in eighth place in League One, Lee Bowyer resigned as manager so he could take over the reigns at Birmingham City.
After a matter of only a few days, during which time Johnnie Jackson had very briefly deputised in a stop-gap caretaker capacity, Nigel Adkins was appointed and steadied any potential fallout from Bowyer's departure, as the South London club finished the 2020–21 season in seventh place. But a poor start to the 2021-22 campaign, during which time Charlton won just two out of their opening thirteen league matches and slid into the relegation zone, Adkins was sacked from his short-lived role on 21st October 2021.
Once again Jackson was enlisted in caretaker role, which after a promising start led to him being appointed as the full-time manager in December 2021. Alas, he was also dismissed at the end of the season, after leading the team up the table from the drop-zone to a final mid table placing of thirteenth. And on 8th June 2022, it was announced that Charlton had snaffled Swindon Town's manager Ben Garner away from the Wiltshire club and installed him in the Valley hot-seat on a three year contract.
At the time of writing, neither Adkins or Bowyer are employed in any kind of football management capacity, but as soon as 16th May 2022, Johnnie Jackson was given the manager's job at AFC Wimbledon and he's wasted no time at all in his efforts to rebuild the Dons following their relegation to League Two at the end of last season.
Since last term, Charlton have signed the following players: Steven Sessegnon (on a season long loan from Fulham), and five free transfer signings, including three: right back Mandela Egbo, attacking midfielder Jack Payne and goalkeeper Joe Wollacott from Garner's former club, along with Midfielder Conor McGrandles from Lincoln City and central defender Eoghan O'Connell from Rochdale.
The departure lounge at the Valley has been considerably busier. Besides Ashley Maynard-Brewer, who has moved out on a season long loan to Gillingham and Jason Pearce's retirement from playing to take up a coaching role with the Addicks Under 18 team, another sixteen players from last season's squad have been released, including both Chris Gunter and Josh Davison who've teamed up with Johnnie Jackson at AFC Wimbledon.
Amidst such a mass exodus (haemorrhaging?) of personnel, Charlton only received (undisclosed) transfer fees for two of their outgoing players, namely: the aforementioned Josh Davison and Ben Dempsey, the latter of who joined Ayr United.
Of course, such an extensive programme of releases, will obviously have reduced the club's wage bill no end. But I was personally surprised and a touch disappointed, to see that Conor Washington, a striker, left the club on a free. Subsequently, he'll be turning out for Championship side Rotherham United this coming season.
It'll be interesting to see if Garner will be allowed to strengthen the attacking options that he currently has at his disposal, in light of Washington's departure. Because it's a long old season and more cover will be required out of necessity, to allow for the inevitable injuries, suspensions and tactical switches that will be need to be negotiated, as the forthcoming league campaign, in what is becoming an increasingly competitive division, builds up a head of steam.
Although, that said, Charlton's Academy continues to provide an impressive number of highly promising youngsters, several of who look good to go and have been knocking on the first team door of late and featured as squad players last term.
Are they ready to step up? Well, chucking them in at the deep end will soon answer that question.
With the Addicks celebrating their thirtieth season back at the Valley this term, Ben Garner's mission, as per Mr Sandgaard's wishes, is implementing a more attractive playing style, incorporating a high press... and targeting a top two finish. Good luck with that.
 |
| A home debut for Ben Garner |
Just saying:
I arrived early at the Valley today, because I was meeting up with a few people to pick their brains for a research project that I'm currently undertaking... and when I got there I had the great pleasure of bumping into and exchanging pleasantries with one Keith Peacock.
The photo from our impromptu chat, that appears towards the top of this post, went out on my Twitter account feed soon afterwards... and has since been reproduced on somebody else's social media site.
I s'pose it's nice that so many people will get to see this rather smashing image of a genuinely lovely guy and highly revered football legend, even if it is as a consequence of a Facebook group admin using it for clickbait purposes on their own social-media platform. I guess that once anything appears on the internet it instantly becomes public property.
But, for the record, though I usually only use my own pictures on THE66POW, very occasionally I have utilised a few that photographer friends of mine have taken. But, when such a thing occurs, I always afford them the courtesy of gaining consent first and then crediting my sources. Manners maketh the man.
Matchday:
Five of the six newcomers featured in the Charlton side over the course of the ninety minutes. A good few of the younger element were given a run out too, which with the first game of the League One season at Accrington Stanley just a week away now, is probably a strong indication of Garner's intentions once the new campaign gets underway for real.
The game was only four minutes old, when Harry Darling provided an embarrassing comedy element to proceedings, when having spotted Albie Morgan closing in on him at ramming speed, the Swans defender rolled a back-pass to Andy Fisher without actually checking where his goalkeeper was first. Whoops! Darling OG, Morgan assist, methinks.
Corey Blackett-Taylor was terrorising the Championship side's defence on the left and was unlucky to see his volley clear the bar, when he ghosted inside on the defences bind side to meet Morgan's dipping delivery. Meanwhile at the opposite end, Joël Mohammed Ramzan Piroe combined with Jamie Paterson to tee a shot up for Matt Grimes, but his effort took a deflection and ended up in the lower-tier of the Covered End.
 |
| 369 Swansea fans |
Michael Obafemi, Swansea's Republic of Ireland international striker was being his usual self, a powerful, hustling and bustling, in 'yer face and on your toes hitman who'll be the scourge of many a Championship defence this season. He proved to be a great test for the Addicks defence, with Sean Clare evidently relishing the ensuing battle, particularly when he stole the ball away from the visitors number nine just inside the area when he was about to let fly at Joe Wollacott's goal, with a timely and impressively composed interception.
Obafemi did find the net, but fortunately for the hosts he'd timed his run all wrong and the offside flag was already aloft long before he curled the ball beyond the reach of Wollacott.
And what of Wollacott, on his home debut? Very, very impressive I'd say. Dealing with set-pieces, shot stopping, reflex-saves and even au fait at adapting to a 'sweeper-keeper' role, something that he'll often be called upon to perform as this modern day tactical trend of faffing about at the back and passing the ball about between defenders remains en vogue. The former Swindon keeper must've been all of twenty yards outside of his area when he charged out to dispossess Grimes, pretty much the same distance that Fisher had had to come to block the path of Steven Sessegnon as he marauded down the left flank (as he appears wont to do) shortly before half-time.
Right at the start of the second-half Jayden Stockley was flattened (well, he started it) just outside the visitors area, but the resulting free kick amounted to nothing. Swansea tried passing their way forward through the centre of the pitch, but their movement was met by stubborn resistance from a well drilled Charlton midfield. Russell Martin, the Swans manager began ranting at the assistant referee, obviously feeling that his opponents were being a bit too rough with his Championship players. At this juncture, I'm going to call things as I saw them (which might not be 100% correct) and award Martin with an assist for Swansea's first goal.
It unfolded like this: he (Martin) was still berating the 'linesman' as play continued, who as a consequence was distracted and slightly behind play as Obafemi broke forward. Had the official been in line with play at the time, it is my belief that he would have flagged the Swans impressive front man for having been caught offside, again, but nothing of the sort happened and only a last ditch challenge at the expense of a corner prevented an equaliser. Subsequently, although O'Connell got his head to Grimes' corner the ball fell kindly for Piroe who lashed it into the bottom corner of the net. 1-1
I must stress. that the above description of the build up Swansea's first goal, is merely my eye-witness account of events as I believe I'd actually seen them. I'm not always right. And thus I figured that standing up, gesturing towards the scoreboard and chanting: "V.A.R! V.A.R!" was a fairly pointless exercise, that would only draw unwanted attention my way and mark me out as a bit of a twat. So I settled for shouting: "Oi! Liner! Do you even know which end of that flag you should put the batteries in!?" instead. That told him, eh!? It was a good finish mind you.
Is there a protocol for awarding anybody with a man of the match award at a pre-season game?
Well, if there is such a thing, then Wollacott, the Ghanaian international goalkeeper, would have been a worthy recipient today, especially for a string of outstanding saves he made in front of the Jimmy Seed Stand in the second-half.
Ryan Inniss, who hitherto had put in a decent shift, suffered from a momentary lapse that allowed Obafemi to get through, one against one, with Wollacott, who bravely denied the Swans what had looked to be a nailed on cert for a second goal.
Then in quick succession, the Addicks keeper showed a great combination of both agility and strength, to deny Piroe and Grimes.
Jack Payne spotted Aaron Henry's forward run and and slid a measured pass into his path, but Fisher sprinted from his area once again to make a timely clearance.
I wonder if defenders chip in a percentage of their salaries into a collection these days, to buy a few post-match beers for the goalkeepers, who are seemingly employed to take on the burden of large chunk their backline's workload.
.JPG)
As the game moved into the final five minutes, two of Swansea's late substitutes, freshened up the visitors attack and clubbed together to provide a winning goal for the Welsh side. Cameron Congreve burst forward on the right flank and reached the dead-ball line, from where he crashed a thumping shot towards the near post where Ryan Manning steered the ball into the Addicks net.
And so it came to pass that Charlton lost, narrowly, against a team from a higher division. But on the whole the Valley faithful seemed happy that their side had shown many positive attributes and that they had, under the guise as a work in progress side - still familiarising themselves with each other, given a very good account of what they are about in the new world.
FT: Charlton Athletic 1 v Swansea City 2
