After a shaky start to what was to be a hard-fought victory, Charlton grew in confidence as the game went on and when it all came together happiness surrounded The Valley once more this season.
Before this season started I feared the worst I honestly thought we would be going down this season after everything that happened in the summer, no money, a deluded owner not selling up and a very small squad. All of that just pointed towards relegation.
Now times have changed dramatically, we are now on a four game winning streak and I’m very confident that we will carry this on at least for the next few games, I just don’t see anyone threatening us enough to actually beat us, we are looking so strong right now and the whole mood around The Valley is spectacular right now.
We started this game okay, but when Plymouth got their chance they made sure they took it as Graham Carey made the most of his open space in the centre of defence to header past Jed Steer in goal. We allowed them too much space and it does make me think, would that have gone in if Bauer was there? Probably not but Sarr who is replacing Bauer was not bad throughout the game.
Thankfully we have seen a real fighting Charlton team, when we go one nil down or when we concede an equalizer there is always fight in this team to come back and win the game. It really takes me back to the Premier League days when we had a real never say die attitude we would be a real handful against teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and many more.
Karlan Grant was the man to score just three minutes after Plymouth went one nil up, it was a scrappy goal after Charlton surrounded Arsenal loanee goalkeeper Matt Macey so he had no chance when the ball fell to Grant. There were protests against the goal as Macey believed he was fouled when the goal went in, but that’s just Lee Bowyers up in your face tactics for you.
Throughout the game we battled on to get the winner knocking at Plymouth’s defence over and over again, we worked so hard in that game every player on that pitch for Charlton put in a real shift. The midfield was unplayable at times they passed the ball around so well between them and that’s what gave us so many chances in attack. After a total of 23 shots and 16 corners we finally got the goal we needed once again through an unmarked Karlan Grant who tucked away a failed header from Igor Vetokele to give us the win on the 88th minute.
I am just loving what is going on around Charlton right now, despite all the troubles in the summer we have managed to pull together a team that has a love for each other and a love for the game you put those both together and you get a hard working team. We are now real contenders for the promotion race and I can really see us being in the Championship next season if we keep up this form throughout the season. The team are really starting to believe in themselves and it’s been a while since I feel a Charlton team can batter the entire league, the last time I felt this good was back when Chris Powell was in charge and we won the league with 101 points that season, so if that’s not positive I don’t know what is.
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