POST-MATCH THREAD: Blackburn Rovers v Charlton Athletic: Sunday 4th January 2026: KO 15:00
Charlton travelled up to Lancashire to take on Blackburn Rovers this afternoon, two sides nestled next to each other in the table. Blackburn are struggling of recent, as a club and a side. In the first half of the season their visit to London resulted in a three nil loss. Nathan Jones’ side, unchanged from the last match against Coventry, would be looking for something of a repeat.
This match got off to a slow start in sleet and rain and a half empty stadium. It wasn’t until about 27 minutes had elapsed that Charlton found space to open the scoring. James Bree’s cross found Miles Leaburn in the centre of the box. His header careened of the crossbar, but fell to Charlie Kelman who put the rebound into the back of the net.Not long after, Charlton doubled their lead when Lloyd Jones flicked the ball over his head and into the box. Charging the loose ball he was pulled down (was a sniper involved?) and Charlton were awarded a penalty that Charlie Kelman suitably dispatched. He now had some sixty minutes to strike again and claim his first hattrick in Charlton colours.
But Blackburn weren’t about to give up just yet. All credit to them for sticking with it. On 37 mins, the Rovers rebounded with some deceptively slick passing that carved a flat-footed Charlton open, resulting in dangerman “Onion” Baradji bursting into the box and heading past Thomas Kaminski to get a goal back for the home side. Until then, Blackburn looked beaten. Now they saw out the half with renewed vigour. Blackburn were there for the taking, so it would be a travesty to throw away the chance at all three points.
On 40 minutes Reece Burke was replaced by Macauley Gillesphey through injury, moving Amari’i Bell over to the right side of the centre backs. In hindsight, this change made us susceptible down the lefty flank. Blackburn threatened a bit for the remainder of the half, but nothing much else transpired.
Blackburn made a couple of changes for the start of the second half and the changes brought them a bit of success as they probed for the equaliser. Charlton, by contrast, were sloppy and on the back foot.
On 58 minutes, Sonny Carey and Greg Docherty were brought on to replace Luke Berry and Joe Rankin-Costello.
On 77 Minutes, the home side’s persistence paid off when they had two chances to knock it in from the right, the second of which found that man Baradgi again, who rifled it home from eighteen yards.
Charlton made two changes, taking off a knackered and knocked Miles Leaburn and Conor Coventy for Tanto Olaofe and Harvey Knibbs. Moments later, Baradgi was taken off.
The action was back and forth, but mainly it was the home side that found the most joy. With a couple of minutes to go a ball careened off of Gillesphey’s back in the box and the home fans appealed for handball. It wasn’t given and I’m not convinced that it hit anything but his back, though it did look deceiving. Nonetheless, the home side had their backs up and there were five additional minutes with which they could seek a winner. Charlton would look to do the same but, truthfully, they’d hardly turned up for the second half.
This one finished honours even. Disappointing. Not good enough. With a two goal lead and Blackburn under considerable pressure as a team and as a club, Charlton will feel that this was two points carelessly thrown away. We don’t have enough in this side to capitalise on things when we manage to get out in front; and that happens rarely enough. Reinforcements can’t come quickly enough.
Blackburn 2 Charlton 2
Over to you.
Comments
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We played 30 minutes of that game with a Left Side of Docherty, TC and Macca.
I don’t even think that does well in League One, let alone this division.
Stop playing TC at LWB. Get your finger out and sign one on Loan. They should’ve been through the door for today.
Might as well recall Zack Micthell because we look like relegation fodder when we don’t have Bell at LCB.
Watching us bottle it to a poor side ravaged by injury (again) is really worrying.
I’ll end on a positive. Miles Leaburn is starting to look like a good option for that target man role. Quality again today.
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Two points lost. Need some help from the Jan window11
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I try to be positive. I try to look up rather than down. But that was dire not helped by some questionable decisions from our manager from my perspective.This window needs to be good18
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I'm sure this will be full of measured takes and polite conversation30
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No way to dress it up. No excuses. Four points dropped against relegation rivals in two of the last three games. Hopefully that doesn’t cost us.
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On the bright side:Still unbeaten this calendar year. Marvellous.15
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Only positives are Kelman goals, Leaburn is looking a handful.
Personally think Jones is to blame with this system he refuses to change and putting players in positions they just don’t suit.28 -
We are lacking intelligence with this team 2-0 up we needed someone to put their foot on the ball…also TC slipping led to first goal…he keeps slipping…does he wear studs FFS!7
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To be 2 nil up and them being that shit, especially the first half, and it being a relegation rival, it's unforgivable really.
We MUST beat the teams around us at the very least to stay up, people will say we've played well the last 3 games but we've got 2 points from it, and it should be 5 minimum23 -
The players went to shit after the pen. Disappointed isn't the word. Frustrated is probably more fair. We should not have dropped 2 points there, then Gillesphey coming on guarantees another goal. His sloppyness had an effect on the entire side. Simply not good enough at this level. He seems to know it too.13
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I don’t think these reinforcements are coming either.15
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100% 👍The Red Robin said:No way to dress it up. No excuses. Four points dropped against relegation rivals in two of the last three games. Hopefully that doesn’t cost us.5 -
Another away point added to the total..
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Same old. Plenty of endeavour. Virtually zero craft. The amount of times we gave the ball back to them in that second half was criminal. We got what we deserved and let them back in.Still, I’d have taken a point before kick off. Norwich lost. Oxford now have a midweek at Brammel Lane. So not all bad.11
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Surely Luton fancy doing us a favour and taking Berry and Gillesphey off our hands. I can’t believe they are still getting game time9
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No matter what players, what game, what manager, Charlton Athletic find a way to be fucking brain dead.
Good job Norwich lost again.15 -
No question about it, that’s two points thrown away. Marginally the better side in the first half but totally outfought in the second, where we seemed to be on half speed the whole time. Blackburn were poor but we seemed knackered and content to defend a slender lead rather than take the game to them. Our bench looked strong but none of the substitutes lifted things - Macca couldn’t stop giving the ball away and Carey looked a shadow of his early season self.
If, and its a big if, we end up getting relegated by two points we will look back on the 4th January as a pivotal moment.
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Can't dress that up as anything but a very poor result. 2 nil up looking so comfortable with Blackburn offering nothing. Absolutely abject second half. Gillesphey is dreadful at this level, should never have moved Bell over.
Leaburn was excellent.8 -
We did not lay a glove on them second half and could have lost the game. Once Burke went off the defence became a shambles.
At least it is obvious where the gaps are. We have a promising strike partnership in Leaburn and Kelman. We have some decent mids and wingers. But the defence has to be reinforced. It is not just numbers but quality and non injury prone players. One central defender and one left wingback as a minimum.. We should never see Gillesphey and TC at the back again this season, or we will go down.7 -
terrible terrible performance in that second half, people have complained about our injury "crisis" this season but it's nothing on blackburn right now, and at 0-2, decimated and mentally fragile, to let them back in and be comfortably the worst side in 2nd half was awful
losing burke made a huge difference, gillesphey was utter toilet
the players looked unsurprisingly shattered... maybe should have rotated more of the team I don't know.. only excuse for that showing is tiredness but that is not without justification
4 points from 4 games against the 4 teams immediately below us is a really poor return
at least we got a point, need some rest and hopefully have a decent go at the two home games if we can get back closer to the coventry levels
extremely frustrating though, could and should have given ourselves real daylight there
Brilliant again from Leaburn, keep at it mate you're getting better and better
Bell superb
hopefully kelman goes from strength to strength now albeit he was anonymous second half
Jones was a monster as usual
rest of them... pfff13 -
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We played well against Cov, but we were distinctly average against Blackburn. But they started off piss poor and then we giftend them by bringing on the least convincing LCB in the league.sam3110 said:To be 2 nil up and them being that shit, especially the first half, and it being a relegation rival, it's unforgivable really.
We MUST beat the teams around us at the very least to stay up, people will say we've played well the last 3 games but we've got 2 points from it, and it should be 5 minimum5 -
Decision making in the final third at times is so frustrating. Get into some good positions with men over and take on a speculative shot rather than try and work anything.4
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Embarrassing that.
2-0 up, poor refereeing decision in our favour, against a team in horrible form, the fans were on their back from the first minute… and we couldn’t make it count.
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A league one squad in transformation (at most 50% complete) five points off relegation is, whilst not as good as it could be, a good starting block if this transfer window is what’s needed.6
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Unforgivable really 2-0 up and we fucked it up….,3
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If they don’t - particularly the LWB & LCB signings - then we’ll be relegated.WillmoreTheRed said:I don’t think these reinforcements are coming either.2 -
Carey’s refusal to play a forward pass today was also really worrying. At least twice he had the chance to release TC into an acre of space and failed to make the pass.
Looks low on confidence.14 -
Really don’t understand why the manager can’t see this, it’s so bloody obvious.Laddick01 said:We played 30 minutes of that game with a Left Side of Docherty, TC and Macca.
I don’t even think that does well in League One, let alone this division.
Stop playing TC at LWB. Get your finger out and sign one on Loan. They should’ve been through the door for today.
Might as well recall Zack Micthell because we look like relegation fodder when we don’t have Bell at LCB.
Watching us bottle it to a poor side ravaged by injury (again) is really worrying.
I’ll end on a positive. Miles Leaburn is starting to look like a good option for that target man role. Quality again today.
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Cheers for the Wembley joy Macca, piss off for all the misery this season. I also don't know why we keep playing Knibbs? He is slow, not particularly committed and doesn't make smart runs. What is he supposed to be doing out there??? Surely Nathan isn't saying "Keep yourself marked and don't look to get into any threatening positions"1
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And Macca wasn’t good enough in League One, let alone a Championship side.3
