A lovely beer fueled sunny afternoon at Park View Road, and an enjoyable afternoon’s entertainment, at least if you were a Welling United supporter that is. A healthy attendance of 2360 saw the game, the majority being either neutral or Charlton fans.
If you are a Charlton fan, it was another of those Charlton Athletic nil afternoon’s, with none of the forwards looking remotely likely to score.
Even a few beers in the Guy Earl of Warwick and the Nag’s Head before the game could hardly disguise the abject lack of skill for the best part by these two poor Charlton teams.
The game was barely a minute old when Rhoys Wiggins set the tone of the afternoon by hammering the ball out of the ground-and he wasn’t the only one to do it either.
Charlton had two different teams out today. In the first half we saw Phillips, Wilson, Wiggins, Morrison, Lennon, Browne (Stephen), Holmes-Dennis, Cousins, Munns, Church, and Pigott and the second half saw Pope, Solly, Fox, Gomez, Bikey-Amougou, Nego, Harriott, Jackson, Buyens, Ansah, and Vetokele.
It wasn’t long before the hapless Wiggins then tripped Blaine Hudson in the box and there weren’t too many complaints as Kieron St Amie put the ball passed Phillips in the Charlton goal. It was nearly 2-0 shortly afterwards as Joe Healy rattled the woodwork with Phillips well beaten. Charlton did have a couple of chances through Browne and Pigott but both lacked any real conviction.
Simon Church then did one of his well rehearsed dives in the penalty area with arms to the sky claiming a penalty. Church had one further chance before thankfully being rested at half time, but in all honesty my Nan could have saved his shot. Welling went into the interval 1-0 up, and few could complain that they didn’t deserve it.
We all hoped for a bit of the “old Charlton” in the second half, and it wasn’t long before Chris Solly rifled a ball across the Welling goal, and Harriott crashed Solly’s cross agonisingly wide, when on another day it might have found the net.
Halfway through the second period, and Welling were on the back foot, and Ansah went close with a glancing header, but it went all “pear shaped” shortly after, and somewhat against the run of play as Moses Ashikodi made it 2-0 to the Wings. Moans from the Charlton fans.
Veteokele had a chance near the end but he elected to pass rather than shoot, and the chance was lost, and in the last minute Fox blasted a good chance just over the bar.
Bob Peeters is the second Charlton manager to lose to the Wings. The other being the truly awful Iain Dowie.
Although it’s still early in the pre-season I think Bob Peeters will be slightly concerned about the lack of scoring chances being made. It looked like Pigott, and in particular Simon Church, could have played all afternoon and not found the net. Why is it we always seem to end up with non scoring forwards ?
There are rumours about loan moves for the both Pigott and Church, with Gillingham and Orient being mentioned. I just hope the O’s or the Gills didn’t have a scout at Park View Road this afternoon watching them, or they might be having second thoughts.
How I wish for a Kermorgant type forward. Our forwards today just looked a bit lightweight against the Welling defence, who in reality, didn’t have too much trouble defending their goal. The only forward who looked up to the task was Igor Vetokele.
Perhaps we’ll see some goals in Spain, and just perhaps, Bob Peeters will have a better idea what his best starting eleven are.
The Bexley Bodger
Charlton Athletic-"the team for me" 