Stockport County 3 (Collar 25, 73, 80 pen) Charlton 1 (Wright 6 o.g.)
By Kevin Nolan, mercifully far from Edgeley Park.
Spiritlessly, noiselessly and unlamented, Charlton disappeared from this season’s FA Cup competition at the hands of Stockport County, who sportingly staked them to an early own-goal lead before coldly and efficiently putting them in their place with a three-goal salvo of their own.
Any mention of this result as a “shock” should be stifled at source. There was not even a vestige of surprise, much less shock, in Charlton’s shambolic surrender to their League Two hosts. County were by far the better side and strolled into the third round, where they will face Walsall at home. It’s a shame they couldn’t have finished the job at The Valley last month and spared us this embarrassment of a replay. But there are motions to be gone through and under caretaker manager Anthony Hayes, the Addicks “turned up” to take their lumps. Or didn’t turn up, as
the saying goes.
The deeper implications of this grisly evening remain to be seen. It came on the back of the failure to beat Cheltenham four days earlier, a result which accelerated Charlton’s fall from grace and cost Ben Garner his job. Thomas Sandgaard’s decision to sack yet another manager -this one after just twenty league games in charge – is another of his impatient, panic-driven impulses. You “don’t need the weatherman to know which way the wind blows” -no need, either, for Sandgaard or his Director of Analytics to confirm that Charlton Athletic are a club on the brink of freefall. There’s an air of despondency around The Valley on matchdays, which no amount of forced cheeriness dispels. We’ve seen it all before, of course, but you can push your luck only so far.
At Stockport, Charlton were hosted by a club, 22 years older than themselves, whose recent experience of ten seasons spent outside the league pyramid should serve as a bleak reminder that football is an unforgiving, merciless business which deals in facts and figures, punishes complacency and has no truck with reputation or past glories. The weak go to the wall as the Hatters, like Jacob Marley, are in the perfect position to confirm. Whether Sandgaard reacts to the warning like Scrooge, opens his wallet during the upcoming January transfer window and takes care of his underfunded clerk Hayes remains to be seen. As the titular head of what we’re constantly reminded is one big family, it’s time the owner put his money where his mouth is.
Back at Edgeley Park, meanwhile, there’s a cup replay to report. We’ll hustle through the details, if you don’t mind, because most of you were horrified witnesses to what happened and don’t need me reminding you just how useless Charlton were.
As they had been in the original tie, the Addicks were gifted a goal to help their cause. This one arrived nice and early when goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe made a dog’s dinner of dealing with Charlie Kirk’s inswinging left wing corner, pawing it against Akil Wright and into the net behind him. It was an encouraging start and Charlton were briefly inspired to build on it. First bright young thing Richard Chin fired over the bar from a promising angle, then Chuks Aneke, making a rare start, broke clear but on his less favoured left foot, was unable to apply the required finish. And that was the end of Charlton as an attacking force as County took charge and put them -and us – out of our mutual misery.
Craig McGillivray delayed the inevitable with a remarkable, instinctive save to repel Paddy Madden’s point-blank header but the Hatters were not kept waiting long to equalise. A crisp, low drive from Ryan Rydel thudded against the woodwork before rebounding conveniently for Will Collar to tap home the leveller.
It took Stockport a further 48 minutes to seal the deal, which you could say was careless of them, since there was little to beat before them. It was Collar who drilled home a crisp finish after Rydel cushioned Kyle Wootton’s cross into his path and, with the issue already settled, who converted the penalty awarded when George Dobson brought down Ollie Crankshaw. So 3-1 it was and 3-1 it stayed until the bitter end.
Just how bitter that end turns out to be we’re about to discover, most immediately at Morecambe on Saturday, where the serious business of staying in League One resumes. Without intending to sound too dramatic, it’s a six-pointer and based on Charlton’s performance at Stockport, it’s hard to fancy the Addicks. Then Bristol Rovers, with baleful Joey Barton adding to the relentless fun, are due at The Valley. It’s become a slog but then again, the Crossbar Challenge never fails to cheer me up…
Stockport: Hinchliffe, Southam-Hales (Crankshaw 67), Wright, Horsfall (Brown 82), Collar (Camps 90+1), R. Johnson, Rydel, Croasdale
(C. Johnson 90), Wootton, Hippolyte (McDonald 90), Madden.
Charlton: McGillivray, Clare, Mitchell, Lavelle, Chin, Morgan (Rak-Sakyi 64), Forster-Caskey (Fraser 82), Campbell (Blackett-Taylor73),
Payne, Aneke (Dobson 46), Kirk (Jaiyesimi 64).
Referee: Scott Oldham. Att: 6,242 (345 visiting).