CHARLTON 2 (Taylor 63, Grant 90+1) SHREWSBURY1 (John-Lewis 84)
Attendance 9,429 (435 Shrewsbury)Charlton Phillips, Solly (C), Bauer, Sarr, Page, Lapslie (Dijksteel, 89), Pratley, Aribo, Marshall (Morgan, h/t), Grant, Taylor (Hackett-Fairchild, 90+4)Shrewsbury Coleman, Haynes, Beckles, Whalley, Docherty, Bolton, Gillead, Amadi-Holloway (John-Lewis, 52), Waterfall (C), Laurent (Okenabihrie, 75), Norburn (Grant, 63)
Summary
A sparse Valley crowd still managed to raise the roof as late drama for a change worked in Charlton's favour. An even game saw Charlton take the lead during the second half as Lyle Taylor opened his Valley account with a fine hearer, making it 2 in 2 for the new striker. However, Shrewsbury hit back late and as the final whistle was approaching, it looked like the game was petering out for a draw. Charlton never gave up however, and excellent work wide from Darren Pratley saw Karlan Grant open his account with another header, this time from a very tight angle. Cue celebrations and smiling faces leaving The Valley.
Post Match comments
Bowyer:
“To keep going the way we did just shows that their will to keep fighting to the end is a special thing. I said a couple of weeks ago that I want us to start scoring late goals and putting teams under pressure instead of being the other way around like it was last season. The first half wasn’t good enough. We didn’t move the ball and when we did there wasn’t enough options. It felt a bit nervy.
“Obviously, we changed things around in the second half and brought young Albie on because he’s someone that can get his foot on the ball and make things happen. He’s got a good range of passing and is neat and tidy. Their sitter was seeing a lot of the ball in the second half and we had to stop that, so that’s why we changed it around and it worked.
Overall, I feel we deserved to win the game. Especially after what happened last week, because we didn’t deserve that.””Lapslie:
“It was an unbelievable feeling. It’s exciting when you find out that you’re playing. You don’t want to let Bow down because he is putting a lot of faith into us, even bring Albie on at half-time, it’s a bold statement for him to make. We respect him for it and are grateful for the opportunities. We just want to repay him.”
STATBANK Player Marks
Taylor = 7.52
Grant = 7.38
Aribo = 7.30
Pratley = 7.29
Lapslie = 7.09
Morgan = 7.04
Sarr = 6.72
Solly = 6.60
Bauer = 6.50
Phillips = 6.36
Page = 6.12
Marshall = 5.06
Team Average = 6.75 @Blucher :
There's nothing quite like edging a game with an injury time winner and it was especially sweet against this lot and their charmless fans. I hope Ginger and his acolytes enjoyed Karlan's late winner. After the moving tribute to young Jack, it was a dreary and mind-numbingly boring first half, enlivened only by some excellent play from Joe Aribo, Phillips great early ball out to Karlan (reminiscent of the Hamer/Wiggins combo) and Page's burst past three players and overstruck cross.
The second half was much better and featured several positives:
- first and foremost, kudos to Bowyer and Jacko for changing the formation. It opened the game up and, whilst leaving us a little more exposed, enabled us to offer much more of a threat;
- a bravura performance from Albie Morgan, who found pockets of space, was always available and used the ball exceptionally well. I also loved the way he assumed responsibility for all set plays and delivered them very well;
- George Lapslie was also first rate, did a really good job for the team in two positions outside his usual berth and weighed in with a lovely cross for the first goal; a determined lad, with a never-say-die attitude;
- at the back, Dillon, Patrick Bauer and Solly were authoritative and Naby had a good second half, spraying some very good passes out from the back, including the one out to George Lapslie in the lead up to the first goal;
- the team showed a much better physical edge, which was great to see. Taylor gave their centre backs (including the human octopus, Beckles) plenty to think about, Pratley had a storming second half and I enjoyed Lapslie's early crunching tackle/foul on their left back. We can't allow ourselves to be bullied by these sort of teams and yesterday we didn't;
- great to see Karlan get off the mark. He's started the season really well;
- really good support from a very small home crowd (6-7,000 ?), who responded to a gutsy and determined effort from our lads in the second half.
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