The game kicked off at a steady pace. Wilson`s involvement on the wings showed good initiative by holding of his man before a good tackle cleared the ball to safety. Charlton was closing down well not allowing STVV any room for a break away keeping it tight in midfield. After five minutes STVV did get a corner that was fumbled by Charlton. Phillips got Charlton out of real trouble after the defence missed the ball putting the keeper under unnecessary pressure.
STVV played some good football down the left wing. With Charlton allowing them far too much freedom at times and not closing down when their goal was threatened. A move followed a good period of play by Wilson linking up with Moussa, causing STVV to scamper back towards their goal. Overall, STVV had the first fifteen minutes play well covered.
Gomez seemed solid at the back. A sinister foul by our number 6 brought play back and the free kick was dealt with by our defence. Wilson again was busy on the flank but was tackled cleanly and his throw- in was wasted by Cousins. Charlton at this point went up a gear with a searching ball through to Church`s but the shot went straight to the keeper. A Charlton build up was sometimes hampered with bad ball control by our midfield.
Charlton`s slackness in midfield field was almost punished by STVV, but their forward rushed the shot and Phillips saved comfortably. Philips confidence was growing and he governed his area by making point blank saves to keep his team in the game. Pressure was building and an unbelievable mistake that cost games was made. I did not see any deliberate back pass, but the referee judged that a back pass was made, but this came to nothing – the Charlton wall held solid.
Charlton, on some occasions going forward, showed good understanding which is a positive. Our best chance of scoring came just before half time, when a good ball in was met by Vetokele, but he collided with Schollen, STVV keeper, who was injured and played no further part.
Charlton came out for the second half faced by a complete changed Sint-Truiden team. With more aggression Charlton took the game to STVV trying to break the dead lock. Morgan Fox replaced Wiggins who played alongside Callum Harriot before the change, to stretch the STVV defence for Moussa to get goal side. The game ebbed and flowed with Jackson organising his players. With Harriot and Fox combining after coming on for Wiggins, a searching ball was put into the eighteen yard area but Harriot was slow to respond and the chance had passed.
Gomez’s strength in defence gave away a free kick that fortunately was sent sky high by their striker. Wilson was replaced by Nego on 58 and made an immediate impact playing much better than in the 45 minute on Saturday. In this game he played some quality balls from the right flank into the box. Charlton were continuing to find their feet and kept up the pressure by taking the game to STVV. Charlton was almost caught out again with a quick counter- attack but their striker missed with only our keeper to beat.
Church and Moussa continued to click. When Church sent over a good cross, two defenders were on Moussa preventing him to make any real impact. Morrison replaced Bikey who looks very useful indeed. The team played well enough. It is still early days. This game was just a friendly; the real test will be the forthcoming season, which starts with our pre-season warm-up against Welling United.
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