Tuesday night shows that every second can count for Charlton Athletic in League One play-off pursuit

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

There is a little more than four-and-a-half hours left of Charlton Athletic’s 2020-21 campaign. You can’t, with any confidence or certainty, predict what is to come.

We’ve got 270 minutes of the regulation season left to go. But that doesn’t include stoppage time.

And in midweek we got a reminder, if required, that every second counts.

Charlton were nearly there in terms of claiming a deeply unconvincing victory on Tuesday night but then Crewe’s Owen Dale slammed an emphatic equaliser past Ben Amos in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

And former Millwall striker John Marquis had put Portsmouth 3-2 up in the 91st minute of a riotious-sounding encounter at Accrington before then scoring an own goal.

If Charlton had been able to see it out after Alex Gilbey netted his third goal in five games then they would have been level on points with the South Coast club and only outside the play-offs on goal difference.

Instead they are eighth and their extra game in hand is at home to third-placed Lincoln on Tuesday.

I can’t see Blackpool dropping out of the top six, so it’s between Charlton, Pompey and Oxford United for that last spot.

Charlton have the toughest-looking remaining fixtures as they host Hull City next Sunday. If they are already crowned champions by then it could help. But, then again, it also might not. Because a lack of pressure can have a positive effect.

Crewe were a fine example of that. The manner of their second leveller was a sickener but it didn’t make them any less totally good value for it.

Nigel Adkins could be regularly heard shouting for his side to keep their shape and discipline as the visitors, safely ensconced in no-man’s land, produced some excellent football that was only lacking a finish before Dale helped himself to his first goal of the evening.

Charlton are not a side who need to boss the ball. Since Adkins has taken charge they have only had more possession than their opponents twice – Peterborough and AFC Wimbledon – and on both occasions they didn’t emerge with victories.

They won at Doncaster and Sunderland with 38 per cent possession.

Against Crewe they had 39 per cent but what cost them was not so much the numbers – completing 165 fewer passes – but their lack of quality when they did get a chance to attack, more often than not on the counter.

Adkins, always one to focus on the positives, talked post-match about the 14 passes in the lead up to Jayden Stockley’s seventh goal in Charlton colours. Where others finish with their feet, the Preston loanee happily goes with his head.

But that 10th-minute opener did not settle the hosts down or deter their opponents.

And Crewe’s first goal of the night was razor sharp. Dale’s deft flick to Tom Lowery was matched by the weight of the return pass, before he stepped inside Jason Pearce and confidently bent beyond Amos.

Chuks Aneke was already being readied to come on and his entrance for the final 23 minutes did give the Addicks a little more devil in the final third.

The size of this Charlton side always makes them a threat from set-pieces and Gilbey made it three goals in five matches from a Jake Forster-Caskey corner. It was met emphatically first by Akin Famewo and the former Milton Keynes man got enough of a touch from close range to divert it past Will Jaaskelainen.

So often the supersub, Aneke was denied by Jaaskelainen from a very tight angle as the attacker tried to snuff out any prospect of a comeback.

Adkins switched to 3-5-2 in the final 15 minutes with Ryan Inniss and Darren Pratley introduced to try and give Charlton more of a foothold.

But they were unable to hold out. Inniss twice headed the ball clear just before it dropped for Dale, whose first touch created the space before he drove left-footed into the net.

Charlton have to dust themselves down and go again. It’s the only option.

STAR MAN
Owen Dale. Two quality finishes.

BEST MOMENT
Jake Forster-Caskey’s pinpoint cross for Gilbey. Unfortunately Harry Pickering blocked the resultant shot..”

PHOTOS: PAUL EDWARDS AND KEITH GILLARD