Charlton Athletic need to be better at “sniffing danger” as lack of clean sheets a concern

Peter Shirtliff reckons that Charlton Athletic need to to be better at “sniffing danger” after their 3-1 loss at Barnsley last weekend.

The Addicks have kept one clean sheet in their opening 10 League One matches.

Josh Benson lashed a spectacular long-distance opener for the Tykes.

James Norwood’s cute close-range flick – a carbon copy of Miles Leaburn’s finish at Fleetwood Town – made it 2-0.

Sam Lavelle and Eoghan O’Connell then both got drawn to the right of the penalty area, leaving Devante Cole with time to measure a low strike beyond Craig MacGillivray.

Former Addicks defender Shirtliff, on Charlton TV punditry duty on Saturday, said:

“[The second and third goals are] really poor. We had ample opportunities to clear the ball but we were sloppy and slow in our decision making. Ultimately it resulted in the ball getting turned over and Cole taking O’Connell on [for the second goal]. That situation shouldn’t have happened.

“The lack of urgency in the period before that, it might be a little lack of defensive awareness and sniffing danger. You’ve got to be able to sniff it and anticipate what is going to happen. I don’t think they did it for that goal and the third goal.

“Sam’s got too close to the action [for the third goal]. He’s got to hold his position. O’Connell doesn’t know if he’s going to go for it or Sam’s going to go for it. The indecision between the two of them has cost the goal.

“They’ve got to get in situations where they’re not chasing games.

“It was a slow game. The scoreline flatters Barnsley.”

Steve Brown, also a former Addicks centre-back, felt the turning point came when Norwood extended Barnsley’s lead.

“We did say it was finely balanced after the first half, even though we were 1-0 down,” he explained. “We needed to score. The moment they scored the second it led to multiple changes and a third [goal].

“What happens when you’re chasing a game, when you go 2-0 down, you are forced to look like you’re making the right changes on the sidelines to get a result. I think Ben was forced into changes and it went against us a little bit.

“Of course you can get substitutions very, very right and also very, very wrong. You don’t know they are going to go wrong until you have made them. I have hindsight, so clearly not [the changes didn’t make Charlton better].

“Rak-Sakyi and Blackett-Taylor were dangerous. You’ve lost that momentum out wide [by taking them off]. That’s not to say the players who came on were disappointing, the set-up was different.

“You can’t defend your penalty area in the manner that we defended our penalty area. You just can’t do that – not in League One, not in League Two, the Championship or the Premier League. If you defend like that in your penalty area then you will always need two or three goals to win a game.

“We’ve all had team-mates who were exceptional on the training ground, but pressure does amazing things to the brain. Particularly when it’s not a good pressure.

“As that game went on the pressure became negative from the stands and the result negative – you really need character and mental strength to deal with it.

“I talked about weakness in our defending in the penalty area, that’s all part of it – making the right decisions and being strong at the right times.

“We’ve come in at half-time and we’re 1-0 down, in a performance where we shouldn’t be 1-0 down. The second half hasn’t gone our way and it’s extended to two and three.

“Barnsley haven’t had a terrific performance, they’ve just done what you need to do in League One to get results.

“It’s a very, very good finish [by Norwood]. You can’t have it go for you one week with Miles and the same finish next week and talk about how rubbish we are defending. ”

One of the positives was summer signing Jack Payne opening his goal account for Charlton following his free transfer move.

The attacking midfielder converted after Charlie Kirk’s left-wing diagonal delivery to Jayden Stockley.

“What I like about Payne is he’s tried to anticipate the knockdown, he’s on the move as it goes up to Stockley,” said Brown. “He leaves his man early and that’s why he gets their first. It’s a decent finish.”