Oldham Held

A long awaited clean sheet signalled the end of Charlton’s 74 match run of not being involved in a goalless draw.

The Addick’s ten men secured a point with a gutsy, backs-to-the-wall rearguard action at Oldham. Reuben Reid’s challenge left Dailly nursing facial wounds and his angry reaction was understandable. Powell opted to withdraw Therry Racon to allow Jon Fortune at the heart of the defence. Here’s how Powell saw things:

‘I am pleased with that performance, especially in the circumstances but when you come to a place like Oldham, you want all 11 men on the pitch.

‘Obviously, there has been a major incident and we went down to 10. I had to take a player off, a creative player in Therry Racon who had a very good chance to put us 1-0 up. Sadly through circumstances out of his control, I had to take him off.

‘By the letter of the law, if you retaliate you have to go.

‘When you look at the incident leading up to it, I can’t say you are justified in doing it, but you have to look at the history Christian has had this year when he broke his jaw.

‘When you see the contact by the player, his foot was high and he has caught Christian in the face, along down the shoulder and he has got the scars to prove it.

‘You can see why he was angry but of course, when you have things like that, you have to do your best to keep your cool. Unfortunately, Christian didn’t and paid for it.

‘I think that is the end of his season so that is a real shame. He is our captain and our leader, but there is an opportunity now for Jonathan Fortune, who hasn’t been in the team.

‘He can now show his worth and what he’s about. It’s a shame we have had to lose Christian, and lose him in this way. He’s been a stalwart this season for me, but it’s happened now,’ said Chris.

The referee had no option but to dismiss Dailly for his reaction but Reuben Reid may have been fortunate to escape with just a yellow, his challenge was clearly dangerous. Judging by the manager’s comments it would seem Fortune and Doherty will be the central defensive pairing for the rest of the season. Miguel Llera was at Boundary Park, seemed fine, but did not even make the bench.

The determination and spirit was there for all to see and Powell was quick to pay tribute to it:

‘I think it shows the togetherness and the work ethic of the players, because they all dug in, to a man.

‘I’d like to commend them all but someone like Jon Fortune, who hasn’t featured much, I thought was immense. He took his chance.

‘John Sullivan had to come in late with Robbie Elliot getting injured in training yesterday and he was very good and very safe in our goal.

‘I think everyone played their part. Bradley Wright-Phillips was playing left wing and central midfield, and I think that goes to show exactly what sort of performance it was today.

‘I’ve just said to them that we need to do that. Imagine if we had done that with 11 players, I think we might have won, but listen, I’m happy with a clean sheet. We haven’t had one of those for a while.’

Chris is now hoping the result will be the catalyst to a good finish to the season and a springboard for the next campaign. Here are his thoughts:

‘We can build on this, we lost a tough game in the week against a better team. Before that we had beaten Orient and had some good points on the road.

‘We had a good point at AFC Bournemouth and one at home to Southampton, so the signs are there.

‘It has been tough for us, there’s no doubt about it but today showed me some real valid points about one or two of the players.

‘Michael Stewart came in and hasn’t played for over a year. I’ve always been a bit wary about whether he could last.

‘He’s shown us in training and he’s shown us in glimpses when he has come on the sort of player that he is. So I thought again he played an important part for us alongside Jose Semedo. Then you had Scott Wagstaff doing his job on the right.

‘I’m very pleased because it’s a long way to come and we’ve had some long trips this year with no reward.

‘It’s reward for our fans who have come up and they have seen that the team cares and the players, against all the odds, have got a hard-earned point,’ said the manager.

Next up at The Valley are Huddersfield. The promotion chasing Terriers are another, fast, powerful side and will give the Addicks much to ponder. Powell will get another chance to see a side that has worked out the formula to succeed at this level. He may get some useful pointers to what is required to turn next season’s promotion dream into reality.