CHARLTON 2 (Aribo 19, Grant 33) DONCASTER 0
Attendance: 9,873 (617 Doncaster)Charlton Steer; Dijksteel (Sarr, 80), Bielik, Pearce (C), Solly; Cullen, Reeves (Marshall, 68), Aribo, Ward; Grant, Taylor (Vetokele, 63).Doncaster Marosi, Mason, Andrew, Whiteman, Marquis, T Anderson, Kane, Taylor (Wilks h/t), Blair (J Anderson, 78), Coppinger (May, h/t).
Summary
That's more like it. Charlton return to winning ways after two recent disappointing outings. A strong 1st half delivered two goals from Aribo and Grant, and such the Addicks domination that Doncaster could not have complained if it was doubled. In the second half, Doncaster had more of the ball and Charlton stepped off the accelerator. However, Charlton comfortably saw out an unspectacular victory and rise to 8th in the table.
Post Match comments
Bowyer:
“"I thought it was a good performance, a professional performance. I think we could have scored more goals so I think the result was fair. It’s not far off our performance against Barnsley because Doncaster are a good side. I said that before we played, I said that all week, I’ve been telling the players we have to respect them. They’ve got players that can hurt you. We competed, we won individual battles, they worked hard as a team which is the most important thing and moved the ball well. Once we scored that settled us down a bit. We were scrappy at the beginning but after that we were comfortable.
"To score two, hit the post, their keeper made a couple of good saves, set pieces they defended them quite well at times because our delivery into the box was very good. On another day we could have had five or six, does it disappoint me? No, because the most important thing is that we got a clean sheet. I think that is good for Jed (Steer). He made a good save in the first five minutes to keep it at 0-0. Three points and then we go Tuesday."
STATBANK Player Marks
Bielik = 7.39
Aribo = 7.73
Cullen = 7.47
Reeves = 7.32
Grant = 7.32
Pearce = 7.27
Solly = 7.09
Taylor = 7.05
Ward = 6.98
Dijksteel = 6.74
Steer = 6.61
Vetokele = 6.03
Team Average = 7.12
At the game...
@LenGlover :
Today was all about the 3 points and arresting our slump in form. We managed that so all is well with the footballing world.
It wasn't perfect but it would be churlish to be too critical of a win. However was I alone in having my heart in my mouth every time Steer tried to clear the ball with marquis bearing down on him? As it was he put in a couple of touch kicks the England full back at Twickenham today would have been proud of under pressure. My fear though is that the ball would hit Marquis and rebound into the net.
I was concerned when Doncaster turned us round. Hate us kicking to the Covered End first half and was even more concerned when the first ten minutes or so was ll Doncaster. However we gained a foothold and dood old 'never gives the ball away' Aribo duly did the business from a corner after approx 20 minutes. That settled the nerves and Grant clinically finished the best move of the match when Taylor slotted over a pinpoint cross having been released by a fine cross field ball from Reeves. (There I can be nice about Reeves sometimes). Karlan might have scored a few minutes earlier when he got a touch to a low pass cum cross from Aribo but it trickled agonisingly the wrong side of the post.
Second half I was expecting the Alamo and a nervy time as we defended deeper and deeper but it never really happened and we looked as comfortable as I can remember in a while. A rare experience for a Charlton fan!
Overall a professional team performance and no one individual stood out as good or bad particularly. Very hard to pick a man of the match today. They all put in 6.5 or 7 except Steer who gets 6 for the reasons outlined above.
Today was all about making sure of the win and Seb's magnificent achievement. COYR
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HERE(Photo credit: Kyle Andrews on twitter)
