Four takeaways from Charlton’s 2-2 draw at Morecambe: Frustrating but another game unbeaten

Charlton squandered a two-goal lead on the north west coast as Morecambe fought back for a point on Tuesday evening. Here’s Louis Mendez’s four takeaways from the clash at the Mazuma Stadium.

ANOTHER GAME UNBEATEN

A bit frustrating in the end but it does extend the unbeaten run under Jackson and there were some more encouraging spells from the Addicks. Charlton started like a house on fire, quickly establishing a two-goal lead but were almost immediately pegged back and Morecambe’s comeback was completed midway through the second-period. The Shrimps stopper Jokull Andersson should have done a lot better with Diallang Jaiyesimi’s opener but when Conor Washington superbly finished off Craig MacGillivray’s perfect punt up the pitch the Addicks seems to be cruising to a fifth win in six league outings. But Chris Gunter was penalised for a tug Cole Stockton – Morecambe’s top scorer was a menace all evening and duly dispatched his sport-kick. That seemed to rock the Addicks for a bit, but they had gained a measure of control again before the break. The hosts rallied again after the break and forced a leveller from a corner just under 20 minutes from time. After that, Charlton enjoyed more of the ball but couldn’t play their way through a Shrimpers side who were happy to sit in.

JACKSON NOT HAPPY TO SETTLE

The caretaker boss knows that if the Addicks are to make a dent in the play-off race then they aren’t in a position to settle for a point when games are there for the winning. Despite the recent run of 14 points from a possible 18, Charlton still sit nine shy of the top six. There’s plenty of games still left in the campaign to try and close that gap but expect to see Jackson making positive substitutes like he did last night to try and turn one point into three.

CLINICAL CONOR

Conor Washington is flying at the moment with goals in each of his last four league outings – and the gorgeously lobbed finish for his strike at Morecambe was that of a confident forward. The Northern Irish international is another player that didn’t really fit the 4-3-3 formation that Nigel Adkins seemed wedded to, but Jackson much prefers two up top. The side is always stronger with Washington in it thanks to his tireless running but his goalscoring prowess often goes unnoticed – he was Charlton’s second-highest goal-getter last year and has seven already this campaign for club and country. Charlton will hope for more this Saturday with Jayden Stockley serving the final game of his suspension.

KEY PLAYERS MISSING

The fact that the Addicks were without the likes of Stockley and Jason Pearce at Morecambe will have played a significant part in why they couldn’t take all three points. Club captain Pearce is ready made for the sort of physical tussling there was with Stockton and could have played a part in keeping him quieter. Stockley also adds steel to any defensive set-piece and may have been able to cut out the corner that led to Anthony O’Connor’s leveller. We’re firmly in that stage of the season now where injuries and suspensions start to take hold so it’s impressive that the Addicks remain unbeaten over the last few games despite the necessity to chop and change.

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS