Four takeaways from Charlton’s 1-1 draw at Fleetwood: Middle-of-the-road Addicks draw again

Charlton’s winless run stretched to five as they played out a 1-1 draw on the Fylde Coast.

Here are Louis Mendez’s four takeaways from the clash with Fleetwood Town.

A GOOD REACTION AFTER THE BREAK

A much-needed improvement in the second-half. Charlton were listless in the first-period. Ben Garner, watching on at home after contracting Covid, will not have been pleased with what he had seen. Their only real opening inside the first 45 minutes was blasted over by Jes Rak-Sakyi – but other than that the South Londoners were struggling to pick each other out in their fetching blue third shirts. Fleetwood edged ahead on the half-hour mark, Callum Morton managed to get the wrong side of Sean Clare as Charlton allowed a cross into their area.

The Addicks regrouped after the break and twice hit the woodwork before super-sub Miles Leaburn stylishly brought them level with a deft flick 13 minutes from time. Rak-Sakyi had two glorious chances to nick a naughty winner late on but fired straight at Jay Lynch. A point apiece was a fair result and a fair reflection of a much-improved second 45 minutes.

FIVE WINLESS

It was no surprise that two of League One’s draw specialists shared the points at Highbury Stadium but this winless run will be starting to cause concern for Garner. The Addicks are too streaky in games – enjoying spells of dominance that never seem to stretch beyond 45 minutes.

Inconsistency is likely to plague this campaign. Charlton’s squad is short. They’ll find themselves caught up in throngs of momentum at times. But they’ll also sleepwalk into winless sequences, like they find themselves in now. The Fleetwood game was another where they were decent for a while but they had already undone their hard work with the first-half performance.

This is what mid-table looks like. Feels familiar.

CHANGE IN SHAPE

One encouraging, albeit ultimately unsuccessful, sign on the Fylde Coast was that Garner had spotted a deficiency in his side and tried to fix it by changing shape. Charlton have had issues defending between their goalposts this season and have also suffered from Jayden Stockley looking isolated.

Therefore, a switch to a 3-5-2 had the potential to heal both impairments. Clare operated as a third centre-half alongside Eoghan O’Connell and Sam Lavelle. Rak-Sakyi partnered Stockley up top.

The experiment ended in failure – which saw Garner revert to his tried and tested 4-3-3 after the break, with some success. But the flexibility was there to try something different – as well as the humility to switch it back when it didn’t work.

EGBO DEBUT

It’s often said that a player returning from injury is like a new signing. So new signing Mandela Egbo returning from injury to make his Addicks debut must have felt like two new signings for Garner.

And the former Swindon (obviously) man impressed. A pacy and direct threat on the far side, he was involved in the move that led to Leaburn’s equaliser. He came close to scoring himself, hitting the post with a misdirected cross and also testing Lynch with a low drive from the edge of the area.

Early days yet, but Garner loves to see his full-backs marauding forward and Egbo showed glimpses of what he is capable of in that department.

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS