Another game against Millwall, another failure to win. Or score.
Scientifically, I’ve determined that Charlton beating Millwall isn’t physically possible - 18 years of experiments with numerous variables have proved conclusive.
Of course for 13 of those years, my experiments were missing one of the major ingredients as they were out of sight, sunning themselves in a much better laboratory.
However, since then, no matter how high quality our elements are, we always react poorly when mixed with SE16.
This was a much better performance than usual against the Lions but that forcefield that they roll out on special occasions - basically against us because everybody else seems to score against them with ease - was in full flow once again.
The standout chance of the game fell to George Tucudean in the closing stages, as he went through one-on-one with David Forde in the Millwall goal.
Forde came rushing out well to close the angle and George did everything right in terms of lifting the ball over the keeper, but then couldn’t quite get his head onto it to force it goal-bound before the Millwall defence were on top of him.
Even if he had, we all know some sort of freak gust of wind, dog running on the pitch or something else ridiculous would have prevented it going over the line anyway.
So once again it was frustration coming away from The Valley, although mixed with some bemusement after I sat in on Ian Holloway’s press conference - which mainly consisted of the eccentric Bristolian trying to explain the concept of the stage version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
We move on once again, looking forward to taking on Ipswich Town on Sky TV on Saturday. We need to get back to winning ways at home.
If Igor Vetokele is back to something more resembling full fitness then that gives us a chance.
I would also look to start George Tucudean - I think we played our best football this season when we played with two up top, and Igor and George link up well.
I’ve been saying it all season, Tucudean is a decent link up player.
He should get 9/10 for his creativity - his ideas are often incisive - probably more like a 5/10 for his execution, as his passing can be wayward at time and his incisive passes get cut out.
But give him time and he will improve on that.
Anyway, if we can’t defeat the curse of Millwall, I’ll happily now settle for defeating curse of Sky TV.
Come on you reds!
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