Highs and lows as Charlton’s agonising push for Championship safety continues

BIRMINGHAM CITY 1
Jutkiewicz 90+3
CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1
Bonne 58
BY RICHARD CAWLEY

This was ecstasy and agony for Charlton’s battle-scarred players and supporters.

Championship survival is proving obstinately difficult to secure.

Or – to be more accurate – it was agony, ecstasy, ecstasy, agony, agony and agony.

The Addicks went through the emotional mixer on Wednesday night.

We had Dillon Phillips, on his 100th appearance for Charlton, conceding a penalty when Josh Cullen’s normally metronomic passing let him down and the goalkeeper clipped Lukas Jutkiewicz over in the box.

But Phillips went the correct way to parry Scott Hogan’s penalty with the Birmingham striker producing a horrible follow-up attempt.

The Blues had conceded three goals in each of their previous five matches at St Andrew’s Trillion Trophy Stadium. And Macauley Bonne ensured there was to be no clean sheet in midweek as he moved into double figures for the campaign.

Alfie Doughty had a mixed evening, losing the ball a few times as Birmingham quickly closed him down. But he also has that ability to put the opposition into chase mode with his searing pace, a real commodity to a Charlton side who have toiled in the final third.

The youngster powered on to Jonny Williams’ pass and set up Bonne for a simple tap in.

Soon after it should have been game over but Aiden McGeady struck the left upright.

Then Bonne – castigated by manager Lee Bowyer for failing to take a first-half chance in Saturday’s reverse to Reading – had another close-range chance but this time Lee Camp made a reaction stop.

Charlton have not scored more than one goal in their last 10 fixtures – failing to net in six of those. It was entirely predictable that they retreated into their defensive shell in the closing stages.

Too often there has been a late stinger. Jutkiewicz produced a clever finish over Phillips in the third of seven minutes added on at the end of the second half, reacting quickest when Harlee Dean’s initial attempt came back off the Charlton number one.

It is the seventh game in which the South Londoners have conceded after the regulation 90 minutes – costing them a total of eight points. Bowyer made no attempt to hide his disappointment in his post-match press conference. He felt if his side had seen this one out then the threat of an instant return to League One was over.

“Forty-nine [points] is safe – with our goal difference we would’ve been okay. It hurts a lot. We should be well out of sight [of the bottom three]. We’ve created enough chances to win two games tonight.

“If you don’t take your chances you won’t stay in this division, plain and simple.

“There is no way they should score there. We’ve got three centre-halves on the pitch. For the ball to get squared across our six-yard box and someone get a free chance when you’ve got three centre-halves on the pitch, it shouldn’t happen.

“Missing clearcut chances from four yards out again, in the middle of the goal. You miss things like that – you don’t win. Once you go 2-0 up, done. We had so many chances for that to happen.”

Instead there is a quick turnaround for the final home match of the campaign at The Valley. Little time for recovery or for gnawed nails to grow for more nervous nibbling.

Wigan arrive in SE7 off the back of an 8-0 demolition of Hull City – the joint-biggest win recorded in the Championship. They have also kept 10 clean sheets in their last 11 games.

Their only defeat came at Brentford and that was immediately after the blow of a 12-point deduction for the Latics being put into administration.

Paul Cook and his players are determined not to let a poor owner pull them down. We all know that Bowyer has been badly let down by a lack of financial backing since promotion 14 months ago, not to mention the jaw-dropping and amateurish antics of East Street Investments.

But the time for a post-mortem isn’t quite yet. Charlton are alive and still kicking. A win on Saturday would end the drop jitters.

Charlton (4-4-2): Phillips 7, Matthews 6, Pearce 6, Lockyer 6, Doughty 7 (Purrington 77), McGeady 7 (Sarr 84), Field 6 (Pratley 77), Cullen 7, Williams 6 (Morgan 77), Hemed 6 (Aneke 65, 7), Bonne 6. Not used: Amos, Oshilaja, Forster-Caskey, Davison.