Charlton V Town

[Bluemike]

Brett Pitman hit the woodwork twice as Town were held to a goalless draw at Charlton despite enjoying much the better of the chances. The striker shot against the bar early on and then clipped the frame with a second-half header in a match the Blues dominated without finding a cutting edge.

Mick McCarthy’s starting line-up included a fresh face in the form of Belgian international winger Roland Lamah. The 28-year-old trialist, who spent a season and a half with Swansea City, has played his football in Hungary with Ferencváros for the last two years and began on the left wing with Town still short of orthodox wide options.

David McGoldrick partnered Pitman up front while, in perhaps the clearest indication of McCarthy’s thinking ahead of the upcoming campaign, last season’s first-choice back four all started, while Andre Dozzell lined up on the right of midfield.

Kevin Bru and Jonathan Douglas made up the central pair, with Luke Hyam missing out due to the twisted knee he sustained at Cambridge.

Experienced Charlton defender Roger Johnson was quickly across to prevent McGoldrick latching onto a Bru ball in the second minute as Town knocked the ball around in the opening minutes. The rangy Lamah then earned himself some early applause from the 300-strong away following in the Jimmy Seed Stand with a sharp tackle on right-back Chris Solly.

Town had controlled the opening 10 minutes and came within inches of scoring a superb opener through Pitman. Christophe Berra sent Jonas Knudsen away down the left and Pitman met his low cut-back, aimed towards the ‘D’, on the half-volley. It was a fine piece of technique but, with goalkeeper Dillon Phillips well beaten, the ball thudded off the crossbar and away.

Six minutes later a long Knudsen throw, flicked on at the near post by Luke Chambers, caused mild consternation in the home box before Bru hooked the half-cleared wall wide. Bru had seen plenty of the ball early on with Charlton, whose manager Russell Slade was making his home debut in the dugout, struggling for meaningful possession.

The Addicks began to settle and Pitman blocked a full-blooded drive from Callum Harriott, who had received a short freekick that he had won after being fouled by Knudsen. Berra was then alert to snuff out a Johnnie Jackson pass that fleetingly looked to have slid Nicky Ajose, Charlton’s central attacker, through on goal.

Lamah had his first real chance to excite the Town fans in the 26th minute, eating up the ground with a dangerous 40-yard run through the middle before his ball for Pitman was cut out.

Well aprt form actually putting the ball in the net it sounds like we did quite well and dominated which we have failed to do in any of the previous friendlies. Hopefully Lamah has impressed enough to be given a chance.

[arana peligrosa]

There is a certain level of encouragement to take from this with regards creating more opportunity than the opposition and learning one or two new names having a run-out, but the familiar deficiency of not being able to turn possession and chances into a registered strike would remain a concern. Bear in mind also this was against an opposition team who last season were not of sufficient standard for the championship league and will now play at a lower level from August, seem to recall (in the recent league fixture) the score in this one game (and) at the very same venue was 3 - 0 in our favor ?

As before whatever occurs in games of this nature may have small resemblance on the realism of the actual league season ahead, and not sure who - or what - pre-season opposition there is remaining before August, but given the choice would have wanted to see the club test itself against some better caliber of opposition during this close season.

[hallamblue]

We tried to do the right thing throughout; didn't always come off but at times it all came together quite nicely too. Not much aimless stuff, except in the period Mick refers to in his quotes where Charlton got a brief foothold – all started from a sloppy Berra ball out from the back – and we needed to dig our way back in again. Obviously not the intensity of a league game but with all our more technical players available we did look much more constructive and pretty much dominated the ball from start to finish. In isolation, the game would not have given you too much to fret over.

Lack of goals obviously a concern although we're obviously yet to get much time from a couple of our strikers. Pitman looked sharp and his first shot against the bar would have been a lovely goal. Looked far brighter in general around the box when Sears and Bishop came on; created the bulk of our best chances after that, would have won the game had it gone on much longer.

On the latter note – Bishop absolutely ran things from the moment he came on, they couldn't get near him. Again, only a friendly, but looks twice the player I remember. Keep him fit and we might just have a top operator for this division; it's exciting.

Lamah - hard work, decent attitude and demeanour, should probably have done better with the one break he had and I'm not completely sure about his first touch. But certainly ate up the ground when he got going. Worth another look, and probably an upgrade on Larsen Toure, but not sure he's a first-team solution.

Thought Knudsen played well too; got forward regularly and his deliveries were on the whole good.

I think that if we want to see this team develop and play better football we're going to have to give it a chance. Wonder if people will.

This was from TWTD fan who entered to the game

[number 9]

Just watched the highlights...there was some lovely passing and movement going on. Granted Charlton almost looked like they were walking, but if we continue to pass the ball around like that the goals will eventually come. Especially impressed with our over-lapping runs, and the amount of players forward. Also, there were some very nice crosses going into the box!

[Bluemike]

Absoultely Number 9, and what a piece of quality from Pitman with the shot that hit the bar.

Ok he missed a couple of sitters but how good was it to see Chambo bombing forward and getting his head on 2 very good crosses.