Match Report: Charlton Athletic 1-0 Birmingham City
Blues fall to a first league defeat of the season thanks to Matt Godden's goal at the Valley for Charlton Athletic.
Charlton Athletic inflicted a first league defeat of the season on Birmingham City thanks to Matt Godden’s second half winner.
This wasn’t a game flush with chances as Blues failed to get their game going and Charlton kept up impressive levels across the 90.
Having almost gifted a goal in the first half, Blues succumbed to a long throw in the second to secure a 1-0 win for the hosts.
Davies chose to go unchanged from the side that beat Huddersfield Town in midweek, meaning Ryan Allsop, Alfie May and Keshi Anderson retained their places in the starting XI.
Both sides had a chance in the opening ten minutes with Daniel Kanu finding Godden to follow over while a short corner routine ended with Alex Cochrane shooting against a Charlton defender. This spell also saw home fans get what they wanted when Kayne Ramsay went through May down the left-hand side.
Little action followed across the next half hour, the only notable chance falling the way of Allan Campbell who struck over from 25 yards.
Blues almost gifted Charlton a goal before half-time when Willum Willumson played in Kanu, who rounded Allsop but failed to hit the target from a tight angle. Godden fired wide before Kanu was gifted another opportunity, Allsop giving him the ball but responding well as the Sierra Leone youngster entered the area.
Blues made a triple change at half-time but fell behind ten minutes later. A long throw was hoisted in and Taylor Gardner-Hickman missed his header at the near post. Godden showed his experience by rolling Cochrane in the area and squeezing the ball into the bottom corner.
The wave of attack never came. The best Blues managed was substitute Emil Hansson darting inside and curling over and a smart move that ended with Scott Wright firing against a Charlton defender. Meanwhile, another error in possession allowing Chuks Aneke to curl wide.
A poor performance and deserved win for the hosts. Blues stay top.
Lineups
Charlton: Mannion; Ramsay Mitchell Jones Edwards (Small 86); Docherty Coventry Campbell (Berry 86); Anderson; Godden (Aneke 72) Kanu (Campbell 63). Unused: Maynard-Brewer; Edmonds-Green Leaburn.
Blues: Allsop; TGH (Sampsted 75) Klarer Bielik (Davies 46) Cochrane; Paik Iwata; Willumson (Dykes 61) May (Wright 46) Anderson (Hansson 46); Stansfield. Unused: BPF Leonard.
Tactics
Blues lined up as normal. A 4-2-3-1 that became a 3-2-4-1 with Paik having license to float from a deep midfield slot, Gardner-Hickman high on the right, Willumson dropping in with May doing similar from the other side.
Nathan Jones changed from his usual 3-5-2 to go with a 4-2-2-2 here and it worked. He boiled the game down to individual battles and his side worked incredibly hard on the day.
From the front, Godden and Kanu were tasked with splitting the back three and closing in on Bielik. The Blues captain didn’t have his usual options as Iwata and Paik were tightly marked by Anderson and Campbell with Coventry following Willumson all over the pitch. Edwards got tight to Gardner-Hickman, Ramsay the same with Anderson. That left his centre-backs and Docherty up against May and Stansfield.
And the truth is, they won the key battles. They regularly forced Blues back to Bielik or Allsop by staying tight, tracking runners or defending on the front foot.
Blues did try and have an answer for this. It included Willumson potentially being able to turn Coventry by going inside and attacking the space, or utilising Stansfield dropping off with Docherty mindful of May on the other side. Or by us holding the ball up and playing the ball through or over the Charlton press to play quickly into the spaces left. But Blues didn’t make the right pass or win the battles that needed to be won in order to play.
When Charlton won possession, they not only had as many bodies as Blues in the middle of the pitch but tended to find a way in down the flanks where Kanu and later Campbell were excellent, quick enough to pose a threat or run upfield, particularly down the left where there was naturally more space with Gardner-Hickman advanced.
Going the other way, Blues competed in a familiar pattern. Anderson followed Ramsay down the right which left Stansfield, May and Willumson narrower and going 3v4 against the Jones, Mitchell, Edwards and Coventry. On this occasion, they simply lacked the energy levels that are so often key to Blues’ press to force them into errors and it allowed Charlton to find gaps rather than panic.
Blues changed it up slightly in the second half, going to more of a classic 4-4-2 to play around the central areas but lacked the composure and desired quality to make it work.
Players
A tough day for Blues. Everything was a bit safe, a bit slow. Not one where any player should be singled out but that the collective simply weren’t at it.
Allsop had a couple of dicey moments. Bielik and Klarer were caught more than once. Cochrane wasn’t his usually assured self and struggled for the goal. Paik and Iwata looked a little leggy and weren’t receiving the ball quick enough to be able to catch their opponents off guard. Willumson gave the ball away for the Kanu chance and didn’t get the best of his battle with Coventry.
The wide players had a particularly tough day. Gardner-Hickman and Anderson weren’t at it. Hansson was brighter when he came on but didn’t see enough of the ball and when he did, his delivery wasn’t great. Wright did his best to create a spark but often found himself outnumbered and needing to return the ball to somebody else. May struggled to get into the game and Stansfield the same.
For Charlton, this might be the first time since Reading where I can genuinely compliment our opposition. Ramsay and Edwards won their battles. Mitchell and Jones were dominant. Coventry stuck to Willumson like glue and showed quality with the ball. Campbell and Anderson set the tone in the middle. And both Kanu and Campbell were excellent with their pace causing issues.
Conclusions
A first defeat of the season and the kicker is that it was such a poor performance.
It’s one of those days where we will claim we were terrible and the visitors will claim they were fantastic and honestly, I think both are true.
Charlton deserve credit. They were on the front foot, they were aggressive, they made it all about the individual battles and they won most of them. Jones got his tactics spot on and his team performed – all the more impressive given their issues in recent weeks.
But we were miles off our levels. Our game is all about the press and quality in possession and we lacked both elements on the day.
Out of possession, we almost never give teams time and space on the ball in defensive areas but we never got going here. The attack looked leggy and because we didn’t close with the same intensity that we normally do, we allowed Charlton to find gaps and play out. We didn’t appear to gamble or back up team-mates and instead performed a reactive rather than proactive press that cost us.
And in possession, there were two sides to it. One, we didn’t move the ball quick enough out from the back, which was both partly because of Charlton’s out of possession work but also our own efforts. And even when we did, we didn’t win the battles in the final third to keep hold of the ball and take players out of position. We also didn’t make enough forward runs from deeper positions to open things up.
Ultimately, while it wasn’t necessarily a lack of effort from the players, it was clear that they weren’t at it on the day.
I have two thoughts from this.
The first is that, in hindsight, maybe Davies would have been better making a couple of changes to the XI to give us some fresh impetus. Hansson in for Anderson, perhaps. Or Dykes instead of May to give us a physical presence up against their centre-backs rather than Stansfield fighting that battle. Could Sampsted have come in for Gardner-Hickman?
I’m not about to blame Davies. Getting the balance right for three-game weeks isn’t easy and it’s a constant battle between deciding whether to go unchanged and keep a winning team or make changes to freshen up and risk losing the balance that worked so well in the previous outing. It’s a learning curve. Plus, Klarer, Cochrane, Paik, Iwata and Willumson aren’t used to starting three games in seven days in England. A learning curve for them too.
The second is that Charlton and Reading have done very well against us and done so by blocking up the centre of the pitch, essentially playing four central midfielders (Sam Smith did a good job dropping off the front for Reading on opening day). I wonder if that becomes the blueprint to play us for teams. One to watch.
Ultimately, we can’t be finding excuses this season. We weren’t good enough on the day and Charlton were. We lost. We move on.
Do we need to worry? Not at all. We play again in two weeks and I’m sure we’ll be ready and focused again.
That said, it’s Lincoln City away, Bolton Wanderers at home and Mansfield Town away. That’s games away at third and fourth while Bolton, despite their struggles early this season, remain one of the better sides in the division. We have to be up for the battle and use the ball as well as we have done in previous games.
I think if you had offered me 12 points from Wrexham, Rotherham United, Peterborough United, Huddersfield Town and Charlton Athletic, I’d have happily taken that. Especially given the way we won four of them so comfortably.
We’re in a fantastic position. We Keep Right On.
Thanks Ryan, I wasn't there but did wonder if there may have been some hangover from Tuesday night.
Also,your point about Charlton tying up the middle of the park is interesting. We should be able to work around that tactic(hopefully).
Cheers
A good account of the Charlton game Ryan. We were second best throughout. Although Charlton were not great they deserved to win. It was a blip no doubt and we move on.