Much better this evening. I thought we came out bright and dominated possession in the first half. With Stockley and Washington reunited up front, the band was back together. For the first 35 minutes or so, we played some nice forward play but lacked efforts on goal. Corey Blackett-Taylor prodded and probed on the left to great effect and Fraser and Gilbey exploited the gaps in behind their midfield. The break through came before halftime with Gilbey rifling a shot into the back of the net.
We defended well, with a backline anchored by Lavelle. No obvious defensive lapses helped with confidence to build up play from the back.
Clean sheet. Win. You could see the relief in Jacko’s face at the final whistle. First win in eight.
Charlton 1 Gillingham 0
Over to you.
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Comments
Certainly an improved performance in the first half with some good approach play even if the finishing didn’t live up to the promise. We couldn’t maintain the momentum in the second half but we benefitted from Gillingham’s failure to really throw the kitchen sink at our wobbly defence. CBT made a difference before he tired and Conor Washington showed just how much we rely on his intelligent running.
A win, at last. And hopefully now we can build on that and open up a bigger gap between us and the dreaded relegation places.
To lose all those games in a row against the top 6-8 was awful but now it’s behind us and we have plenty more Gillinghams to play in the coming weeks.
We are the worst ‘big club’ in this division which is not acceptable and must be improved upon next season. But we still have enough to beat your run of the mill third tier sides.
Who's asking the questions: Charlotte or Leuth?
Up The Addicks
We were the better team, just.
3 points a big sigh of relief....now is the time to build on this and finish the season strongly.
Huge credit has to go to CBT who was everywhere both attacking and defending, and to Gilbey whose movement and running deserved a goal.
Gillingham are a well organized side but desperately lacking in quality. But that shouldn't take away from the fact that we were good value after an awful run of form.
Not vintage Stockley or Washington, both tired and looked rusty. But it's clear what they offer up front, they dovetail so well.
And you can start to see the shoots of a very promising left side with Fraser, CBT, and Washington interchanging and creating overloads.
Lastly, Dobbo is immense. Give him a contract extension tomorrow.
Job done.
Dobson did well in midfield (as usual), Clare made possibly the second-best tackle of the season (even if it was negated by an offside flag), and Gilbey finally managed to hit the target and score.
No-one managed to get themselves sent off, no-one picked up a booling to trigger a suspension.
Bearing in mind what's been dished up in the last few months that was probably as good a night as we could have hoped for.
Its another base for Jackson to build upon in the summer, but as shown by the leaky goals away from home, we really need to find a better formula when we step outside of SE7.
I didnt see us on Saturday, and going by the highlights I'm extremely thankful - But after a brief early throw in scare, we got ourselves on the ball and comfortably got ourselves the lead, and the win shortly before full-time.
Gilbey I thought had an excellent match, similar to the Ipswich game at the Valley. But would get so many goals, if he wasnt awful at finishing - You look back at his goal at Sunderland last season, and you realise that the scuffed shot that day, wasnt just a poor attempt, it was a typical attempt from him... As shown on, what was it, something like two attempts before he coolly finished into an empty net.
Fraser too showed calmness on the ball, and whilst we're not seeing anything Hollywood from him as yet, I think the best is still to come - Whilst Elliott Lee came off the bench, and showed that we should smile, shake his hand in the summer, and say: "Thanks, but no thanks". - Blackett-Taylor on the other hand, has returned, showing the form we saw in Portsmouth, and deserves to be a squad player at the very least next term
The message is clear though, keep Stockley / Washington fit and we stand a chance.
I imagine many saw it as a typical whinging soundbite from Jackson when he bemoaned their absence in a recent game - The stats dont lie though, thats the seventh game they've started under him now where we've come away with points.
Hopefully we can make it game eight on Saturday.
Gillingham never pressed or harried us, which suited us just fine. We had time to stroke it about.
CBT was our brightest player by far.
Stockley ain't that great, quite surprised how infective he was.
Foster must still be COVID effected, because I didn't think he had much influence tonight.
And lastly for now, we'd be totally fucked if we didn't have Dobson.
A win is a win, and we needed it - but I don’t think this solves or fixes anything. We still looked relatively toothless, but slightly less toothless than an awful Gillingham side.