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Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Victory at the San Siro

Charlton continued their pursuit of reserve league silverware at the San Siro Stadium, Welling last night with a 1-0 victory over Chaventry City. Both sides put out young teams but it was the one veteran, Kevin Lisbie, who secured Charlton's winning goal just before half time.

It's a long time since I'd been to Park View Road and I'd forgotten how ramshackle the main stand is and how little leg room it offers. Perhaps we should have gone in the new stand, near which which was an advert for 'Betterbuys and Welling United - a great winning double'.

Charlton supremo Peter Varney slipped out of the lounge area just before the start of the match to take his seat, no doubt to watch son Alex. I couldn't see Curbs although reserve games usually form part of his busy schedule.

The game was played throughout at a frenetic pace with first year scholar Myles Weston, only brought in at the last minute to replace the withdrawn Lloyd Sam, particularly impressive. (Presumably this means Sams is in the first team squad for Wednesday). Weston faded as the game went on, however, and was substituted in the second half. Charlton were dominant in the first half and rattled the woodwork on two occasions.

We made our way behind the away goal for the second half. Coventry's slimline keeper was getting some stick with shouts of 'you fat bastard'. He also had a voice reminiscent of the architects' sketch in Monty Python and before long his instructions were being mimicked to the confusion of his defenders.

Coventry came into the game much more in the second half and the Addicks defence looked more fragile. For the Charlton players the emphasis seemed to be on getting rid of the ball to another player immediately when it might have been better to hang on to it. There were too many unforced errors and passing lost some of its accuracy.

It looked as if the game had been put beyond doubt when Varney burst through in the closing minutes to put the ball in the net, but he was ruled offside by the lino. Those who complain that officials are getting too much stick should remember that they are often deciding games through incompetent decisions.

As it was, Andersen, who had been authoritative throughout, had to make a superb save in the dying minutes of the game to keep Charlton's hold on the points.

Fans of the 4-4-2 formation may wish to note that Kevin Lisbie lasted the 90 minutes and contributed throughout apart from his goal. However, his shoulders were too ready to drop when moves went wrong.

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