There’s no more painful a way to lose a game of football than a 95th-minute scuffed shot from a newly-arrived loan striker at a club who already has more striking options than you do.
Noel Hunt’s winner with the very last kick of the game was scarcely what Ipswich deserved on the balance of play, but much like my column aimed at Norwich fans stated after our 1-0 win at Carrow Road, you cannot claim to deserve the win yourself if you do not take your chances.
This, perversely, was one of Charlton’s best performances for months. Incisive, pacey attacks, plenty of chances being created. None of them, however, really troubled Bartosz Bialkowski in the Tractor Boys’ goal.
One the most encouraging parts of the Charlton display was the performance of enigmatic winger-come-striker Callum Harriott. Harriott has sadly never before been blessed with the footballing intelligence that the best players have, showing an unerring ability to shoot when he shouldn’t, try too many tricks and run into blind alleys with the ball.
However, over the last few weeks, Big Bad Bobby Peeters has clearly had a few words in his ear and asked him to play a little more sensibly and a little more unselfishly. Harriott did the simple stuff well, laid on chances for his team-mates on more than one occasion and also had a few attempts on goal.
Sadly, for some reason, a few people are only remembering his worst touch of the game: the horrendous air shot on the edge of the six-yard box that meant another Charlton chance went begging. This one instance of Harriott being overcome by a nasty case of ‘all swing, no ding’ overshadowed what was a much-improved performance, and long may these continue.
The fact it was him playing up top with Igor Vetokele was a symptom of the fact that we are still desperately short of attacking options. The owner Roland Duchatelet does not think that loan signings are good value, and he would have a point. You generally get a player out of form, whose wages are very high and you also do not get any resale value because they are not yours to sell on.
This means that in January, we will hopefully be in the market for a striker who would be ours to keep. The advantage of our European network of scouts is that we will be able to pick up relatively unknown players who have plenty of potential – much like Vetokele.
So, on Saturday, we head to the banks of The Trent to take on Psycho Pearce’s Nottingham Forest. Forest aren’t in the best of form at the moment and are suffering a slight injury crisis - most notably ex-Addick Andy Reid is still out injured.
The Championship's top scorer Britt Assombalonga is also ruled out, suspended for deciding to have a go in goal away at Birmingham last week, so it is not a full-strength Forest side we will be taking on.
Let’s hope that Charlton can put in another good display, but complete it with the hatful of goals we deserved for all the chances we created last week.
Come on, you reds!!
Follow Charlton columnist Louis Mendez on Twitter @LouisMend
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