Burton visited the Valley this Easter Monday holiday but failed to make an impression early on, as Charlton put them to the test almost immediately. On 7 minutes, Jen Rak-Sakyi scored a brilliant goal, bursting into the box, hesitating, feinting left, then turning to shoot on his right foot from the centre of the box, past former Charlton keeper Craig MacG and into the bottom left of Burton's goal. Only ten minutes later, Rak-Sakyi struck again, this time favouring his trusty left boot to slide the ball under the keeper having got on the end of a Scott Fraser through-ball into the box.
Charlton were happy bunnies and cruising into half time when the all too familiar lapse in concentration gifted Burton an opportunity. A speculative high ball into the box was not dealt with by a charging Ashley Maynard-Brewer, who failed to keep a hold of the ball as he attempted to pluck it out of the air over the back of Michael Hector and the Burton's Hughes was able to take advantage and poke the ball into the back of the net, giving a hapless Burton a life line right before half time.
A scrappy second half allowed Burton to find a foothold and pose the question, could we see their resurrection? They pressed with a renewed enthusiasm that was quickly undone when McCauley Bonne scored on 50 minutes to make it 3-1. One would think Charlton were free and clear at that point, but we do like to invite pressure and, true to the form of this season, the Addicks conceded a second goal on 76 minutes to make the final fifteen minutes a little less comfortable. This was compounded when substitute Jack Payne quickly collected two yellow cards and saw red after a series of rash challenges. Still, the Addicks saw it out and claimed all three points.
Charlton 3 Burton 2
Over to you.
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Comments
Morgan, Henry, Payne, JRS, Campbell and Bonne. You wouldn't want to be relying on any of those to stand firm with you in amongst the much and bullets in the trenches !
JRS certainly took his goals well and I did point him out to a couple of people in the bar who admitted he looked useful and that we could have a player on our hands here. Unfortunately I had to tell them where he's really from.
my major gripe was what was payne doing with that second tackle? he knew he was on a yellow then he does that shit. no excuse.
Otherwise a decent enough game in that we had some pretty decent moments. Burton’s game plan was to get it forward and hope for long throws and corners. Our defending from set pieces is a concern. Another free header for their goal and they repeated the move a few minutes later.
Don’t know if anyone else agrees but their number 7, Joe Powell was superb I thought. A very good player who I’d love to get next year based on today’s performance.
Those who wanted the youngsters to have a go are getting their wish. Three points. That'll do for tonight.
Very impressed by Hector - I hope we keep him.