Charlton Athletic 3 Carlisle United 2: The corner, just after the half-hour mark, was cleared. Charlton’s Thierry Small pounced on the ball in front of the United ‘D’. A swarm of blue shirts encircled him like wasps around a pint glass. No way through. Chance snuffed out.
It was, in miniature, the kind of moment that deluded you to think: this time, maybe? Could this be the one? Might this finally be the afternoon when, through sheer collective stubbornness, stamina and perhaps, dare we dream it, a little quality, it could all go right for once?
Now spool forward to the 75th minute. In fact, spool past it if you like. Paul Simpson said there was nothing to be gained by further “highlighting” a moment which everyone is already savagely aware of. And to the question of whether the world needs another description of Sam Lavelle underhitting a pass and Alfie May sweeping it into Carlisle’s net, the humane answer is: probably not.
But ignore it we can’t. Blend it into the overall picture, we can’t. At 2-2, having just fought back, Carlisle were entertaining vague notions of winning this game. A few minutes later, the kind of moment that stalks a struggling team and a struggling defender popped the latest semi-inflated balloon, and some familiar feelings were back once again.
Seriously: how many different ways can a team find to lose? We’ve had the narrow and the heavy, the dreadful and the excruciating, the generally sub-standard and now the head-versus-table version, when United looked, in phases, to be showing periods of team quality, of gradual, qualified growth…and then that.
Simpson, after the game, said it was too early to entertain the question of whether it might be time to take Lavelle out of the firing line. United’s boss, it has been pointed out by many fans, has dropped players for less.
Last summer’s defensive signing, Simpson’s league ever-present, is now the unavoidable issue, with United’s No5 also at the heart of Charlton’s other goals on Saturday. The call, whichever way it goes, won’t keep Carlisle in League One, but will still be revealing: whether Simpson feels it right to keep such an underperforming player in the XI, whether Lavelle needs a spell out for his own sake, or whether he should be backed, against the present evidence, to rise through this situation.
Ten games to go is a little late, frankly, for the better answers to be provided. And Barnsley, from the promotion race, are not the kind of opponents you want when facing a precarious judgement call.
Once more, then: unwanted considerations when the aftermath in south London could have been about a well-won point – about United going to in-form Charlton and showing some cojones to fight back and hold them. There was a little more cohesion about their play in south London, there were – hallelujah – chances in the box for Luke Armstrong (who took one of them). There were periods when their ball-retention was better, spells when they didn’t look such a lost cause at this level.
However, with a capital H: it’s another defeat, ten in 11 now – three points from a possible 33 – with more bad defending at the business end. Those factors can’t be washed from the judgement. Reasons why United are the worst side at this level remained on harsh display.
A bright and breezy afternoon in the capital blew the game this way and that. Carlisle, with Dylan McGeouch recalled in midfield to replace the sidelined Josh Vela, started well: not with the hangdog body-language of a side losing most weeks. They pressed firmly and began with energy against a home team who did not gain early rhythm.
Stop me, though, if you think you’ve heard this one before. Jack Armer and Armstrong almost unlocked the door and Charlton’s balls down the channels did not immediately pay off against some watchful Blues defending.
Small, on the Charlton left, was an obvious outlet and Jack Ellis had to battle hard to stay with him. Harry Lewis dealt with two of his shots and then saved terrifically when George Dobson’s header appeared to be going in. Good defiance. Could this be the one…?
At the other end, Jack Diamond then pickpocketed the dawdling Macaulay Gillesphey and from the resulting corner, Taylor Charters’ second delivery was hooked in by Armstrong. “How **** must you be? We’re winning away,” United’s fans sang – yet it was the fifth straight away game in which the Blues had scored first. Retaining that position has been less easy.
Charlton’s response was focused, and…enough. Lewis saved a Thomas header, and again from Small, but more red attacks flowed down either side, and United’s defiance cracked when Daniel Kanu’s miscued shot turned into a pass for May who, cruising clear of Lavelle, tucked the shot past Lewis with the conviction of a man taking his 23rd goal of the season.
That old familiar pain. On came the Addicks, Dobson running beyond Diamond, forcing Lewis to claw over his bar. Diamond, with a late first-half break, offered at least a glimpse of how Carlisle might come back and hurt the hosts, and they were still, on balance, playing more football than we’ve at times seen, McGeouch’s presence central to that. But they struggled to break the lines to truly damaging effect other than when Diamond flickered away from his man, largely to no avail.
Parity was then obliterated in the 54th minute as May clipped the ball in, Kanu got away from Lavelle and dug the ball out of his feet and high past Lewis. Carlisle replied – Armstrong hauled back in the box and Charters caressing the penalty home: Wembley flashbacks. In this season of torment you can never have too many of those.
Yet after Kanu had headed against the post, Lavelle then got the ball facing his own goal and…no, let’s not do it. Let’s not commit pixels, or ink, to another account of it. It ended the game, extinguished Carlisle’s hope that they could see this, one way or another, through. It put another defeat on the table and made you feel that anything else right now is quite simply a lost cause.
Cheery times, eh? We go again Tuesday, etc.
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