Not a very encouraging performance, particularly given the apparent strength of our starting eleven. We opened promisingly enough – Dhanda and Morgan Whittaker each creating chances for themselves in the first 15 minutes. Then 2 avoidable goals in quick succession – the first on 19 minutes through playing in the wrong places. Possession was lost on the edge of our penalty area, with the subsequent cross being turned into his own net by Harry Jones. A minute later, Charlton’s Aaron Henry spotted our keeper Hansen way off his line and chipped him with a free kick from well inside his own half. Audacious enough, but not the sort of goal to be conceding at any level. The same player tried the same trick in the 2nd half.
We continued to try to play out rather naively from the back, but Charlton pressed hard and forced our defensive three and goalie to make hurried and wayward passes. Our players didn’t really seem to know how to deal with that, we frequently got penned in and created very little in the remainder of the half.
We looked slightly better with substitutions and Morgan Whittaker got a neat left footed finish on 55 minutes. Within minutes, though, we’d conceded possession yet again and got punished with an emphatic finish by Charlton’s Dylan Gavin.
Our shape is based on the first team model, but our wide players Rushesha and McFayden were frequently isolated and there were long periods where they didn’t see a lot of the ball. We looked stretched and our middle wasn’t very cohesive. Williams and Dhanda had a lot more possession as space opened up in the 2nd half. Only Brandon Cooper looked comfortable in the defensive trio.
Obafemi played up front, got little service and didn’t look match fit, coming off with Morgan Whittaker going into the central role. Tarrelle Whittaker had too little time to find his shooting feet. We huffed and puffed, created some half chances through McFayden and Dhanda on the left, but in truth didn’t deserve to come back.