I was well pleased with the draw at Peterborough and I’ll be delighted if we can get a win this afternoon. Charlton have done as well in their last five matches as we have so it’s going to be another tussle but I think we can beat them. We’ve got a number of players who we can expect to score these days and with McGeady and Jones in such form something will inevitably have to give. I presume that Hume will again play some part in today’s match and that can only strengthen us. Charlton could well replace the failing Lincoln in the top six before too long so they’ll really be going for it today. Let’s hope Swindon and Plymouth can spring a surprise or two against Peterborough and Hull. As usual I’ll be watching the game with my Sunderland bubble and my match prediction is a 2-1 win for us.
I got to my bubble and when I saw the team-news, Scowen, Gooch and O’Brien were starting while Leadbitter, Jones and Stewart were on the bench. I presume Maguire is injured but I haven’t heard any news about him. My fellow bubblers predicted 3-0 and 1-0 to us.
After two minutes’ silence for Prince Philip and the taking of the knee we were underway and Charlton had a decent attack after thirty seconds. I thought we’d scored in the fifth minute when McGeady lobbed the ball in from the left and a Wyke effort went just wide of the post. Six minutes later Wyke had an even better chance when he got through with just Amos in goal to beat but the latter stretched up and blocked his shot. Up the other end Charlton hit the post and won the first corner. It was going end to end and next thing a great McGeady cross was met by O’Brien but again Amos did well to block his on-target effort. Just before the half-way mark we were awarded a free-kick next to their left corner flag but McGeady’s kick was punched out by Amos. Elsewhere both Peterborough and Hull were one-up. Charlton had a couple of penalty-shouts within a few seconds but thankfully referee Backhouse wasn’t interested. Charlton win their third corner just after the half-hour and when it came across from the left, Inniss headed it into the net to put them ahead or did Scowen score an own-goal? We responded at once with a low McFadzean shot being turned out for a corner. With Posh being 2-0 up the afternoon wasn’t looking too good but there was plenty of time to turn things around. We were having our fair share of attacks but often the final ball was too near Amos. Gooch had been struggling for a while and I imagined he’d be subbed for the second-half. It was 0-1 at the break.
When we kicked off again, we’d made no changes but surely they wouldn’t be long. Caskey was the first player to be booked by knocking the ball away with his hand when we were about to take a throw. Ten minutes in we were awarded a free-kick near the right angle of their box but Charlton got it away with no difficulty. McGeady then had a shot from the edge of their box that went narrowly over. As we approached the hour-mark we got off the hook when Charlton hit the post again and then we made a double substitution with McLaughlin and Jones coming on for O’Brien and Winchester. Before they had a chance to get involved we were 2-0 down when Gilbey scored from close range. We made another two subs with Hume and Stewart replacing Gooch and McFadzean but we were really up against it and even a draw was looking unlikely. Burge made a good stop with twenty minutes left but we were doing little at the other end with crosses going too close to the goalie and Charlton defending in depth. With just less than a quarter of an hour left we got one back and after two efforts had been beaten out Scowen had the nous to dive low and head it in from the edge of the box. I felt that a draw would seem like a win. We were really pressing them back but weren’t really threatening their massed defence. Stewart had a header on target just as five minutes stoppage-time was announced but that was our last effort and it ended 1-2.
Obviously this was a very disappointing result and with our main rivals both winning 3-0, a very bad afternoon for us all round. It’s looking like the play-offs now and Charlton are likely to be in them.
