Barnsley 2 ( Keiller-Dunn 34, Watters 90+5) Charlton 2 (Berry 77, 90+ 3).
Kevin Nolan covered his eyes as Charlton blew a golden opportunity to join League One’s promotion pace setters. Not that they “deserved” to, as if that has any relevance.
When the fourth official informed us that there would be five minutes added to this scruffy game, Charlton’s task seemed starkly simple. They needed to protect a useful, if frankly unfeasible, 1-1 draw and clear out of South Yorkshire before the performance police showed up. Debate was for later; now was not the time for explanations or apologies. Just those five inconvenient minutes to negotiate…
The Addicks had been bloody awful but, incredibly, went one better. In the fourth of those extra minutes, substitute Luke Berry added a second goal to his earlier equaliser and they found themselves mere seconds away from nicking all three points and moving improbably into League One’s play-off positions. Then they pulled themselves together and reverted to type. Max Watters was given time and space to turn and shoot inside a congested penalty area and two of the three points had to be refunded. It was a victory for justice lovers and one in the eye for those philistines who care nothing for aesthetics and for whom the result is all that matters.
Disjointed, disorganised and most alarmingly disheartened, meanwhile, Charlton got off to a deceptively bright start before degenerating into a leaderless rabble which was late to every second ball, won less than their share of aerial duels despite their hulking appearance and showed no appetite for the one-on-one challenges which determine the ebb and flow of most football matches. Win the small battles and chances are the war follows. It’s not clear who, if anyone, said that, but there’s truth lurking there somewhere. At Oakwell on Tuesday evening, Charlton defied logic by losing almost every personal skirmish before unbelievably coming within a whisker of making off with the only prize that matters.
Still working his way back to full fitness, Miles Leaburn led the visitors’ early charge by cutting in sharply from the right to force a smart save from Gabriel Solina at his near post. The presence of two colleagues in better positions will hardly have gone unnoticed but Miles was a man on a mission. Minutes later, Conor Coventry exchanged passes with Allan Campbell before setting up Matty Godden to spin and volley narrowly over the bar. And that was as good as it was to get for Charlton before they virtually disappeared as an attacking threat.
Goalkeeper Will Mannion had been untroubled until he was called on first to block a hard shot from Josh Earl, then to go full length in saving Georgie Gent’s corner bound drive. On 34 minutes, however, Mannion was sadly at fault as the Tykes moved into a lead which seemed, at the time, to promise of more to come. Getting down sharply to deal with Stephen Humphrys’ accurate but speculative effort, he parried the ball directly to Davis Keillor-Dunn, who could hardly fail to score from close range. Mannion’s glaring error undid an otherwise reliable contribution, proving that a goalkeeper’s lot, like that of a policeman, is not always a happy one.
Several chances to at least double their lead came Barnsley’s way but were spurned. Admittedly, Jon Russell was out of luck when hitting the bar and again as Leaburn, back to help defend a corner, scrambled his shot off Mannion’s goalline. It seemed academic anyway with the listless visitors showing little sign of the drama to come but while they were only a goal to the good, the home boys were statistically vulnerable. With 13 minutes remaining, they succumbed to the first of two flashes of quality from one of Charlton’s few bright sparks.
Almost invisible in an untidy penalty area scrimmage, Berry seized on Matt Craig’s scuffed clearance and threaded a crisp volley through the throng into the bottom left corner. As unexpected as it was expertly executed, the equaliser gave his side a timely shot in the arm but Berry, as it turned out, wasn’t through for the evening. Perfectly positioned to exploit Solina’s weak punch-out, his cleverly controlled volley was unstoppable on its way over the stranded keeper and neatly under his bar.
Berry’s second classy finish should have polished off Barnsley but his sloppy side couldn’t make it over the line. Watters’ desperately late counter punch gave the Tykes a share of the points and turned the draw, which had been the extent of Charlton’s ambition both before kick-off and at the outset of added time, into what seems demoralising defeat. It wasn’t, of course, but it’ll do until one comes along.
The last word belonged to a disgruntled Nathan Jones, who supervised the debacle from the grandstand and was less than enchanted with what he saw. “The level of performance,” he concluded, “was miles off. If we’d done the basics better, we’d have won the game but we didn’t… I had defenders who didn’t head it, I had defenders who didn’t defend the box, I had midfielders that got over-run… that’s not what I want from my football team… we were a mile off where we need to be tonight.” There was more from the irritated manager but we got the point. As did Charlton when all was said and done.
Barnsley. Solina, Russell, Roberts, de Gevigney, O’Keeffe, Gent, Earl, Keillor-Dunn (Jalo 90), Humphrys (Cosgrove 89), Yoganathan (Craig 63), Connell (Watter 78). Not used: Cotter, Pines, Lofthouse. Booked: Roberts, Earl, Connell.
Charlton: Mannion, Edmonds-Green, Alex Mitchell, Gillesphey, Edwards (Small 62), Coventry, Taylor (Berry 62), Anderson (Watson 46), Alex Campbell, Leaburn (Tyreece Campbell 71), Godden. Not used: Maynard-Brewer, Docherty, Dixon. Booked: Edmonds-Green.
Refereee: Lewis Smith. Att: 12,441 (472 visiting).
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