Tuesday 11 August 2015

Charlton Athletic 4 v Dagenham & Redbridge 1

A night of a few surprises as Charlton waltzed into the second round of the League Cup. Little less than a year ago I had written this fixture off in my mind and I was still convinced a week ago that I wouldn't bother. Saturday's feel-good win changed that and I decided I would attend earlier today when at work as my wife, a daughter and her friend who is staying over all said they wanted to go.

I was late coming home and scurried past the ground at 7.40pm. There was an ominously long queue for tickets but the good lady had already been around to the office earlier and secured ours. I past her and the kids on the threshold as I raced in to change and grab a bite to eat. As a consequence I missed the opening 15 minutes but did receive a call from a mate to say he wouldn't now be joining us after all having admitted defeat with the queueing throng for a ticket. The last straw was an official saying there would be a further delay whilst "more tickets are brought 'round." Oh dear.

There was no queue once again at the turnstiles and I was into the East in plenty of time to see Tony Watt bludgeon a straight shot which beat the Daggers keeper in the centre of his goal. I said a few surprises it was good to all four stands open, albeit with top tiers closed. The Charlton line-up was certainly another surprise and the bench even more so. Credit to Luzon for playing most of his first eleven tonight. It may just be because we are still trying to familiarise players and get game time but, equally, the lessons of previous seasons where the selection policy has been disrespectful to the supporters and the opposition may have been taken on board. Whichever, it was, Tony Watt notched scored again and Ahearne-Grant also opened his account. Zag Berdych got off the mark too before Reza netted once again in Addick colours. 

Nicky Pope had another match in front of the impressive Patrick Bauer and Bauer got a match with Naby Sarr. Fox played again although Solly was rested and replaced by Charles-Cook.

As expected, this was a match for Jacko in the centre alongside El-Hadji Ba with Berdych out right and Ceballos on the left. Guy Luzon used all his substitutes before the end with the unlikely appearance of Johan Berg Gudmundsson, the return of Reza and a start for Holmes-Dennis.

The Daggers weren't much cop to be fair although their fans made up for it. Our opening goal was met with "you're nothing special, we lose every week!" They also started an impressive conga (below) after we scored the third just in case we thought they might be even slightly bothered.

1 comment:

Go on, you know you want to....