City 1 Charlton 2
Report by Eddie Blount
City's hopes of a return to the Premiership lie in ruins after a dismal run of results in February – no league points and knocked out of the cup at home by Huddersfield – left City well adrift of their nearest rivals. In the twinkling of an eye they have surged forward and we have been left for dead.
We have some demanding fixtures coming up and we could well be totally out of contention by the end of the month. The automatic places will go to Cardiff and Hull, both having strengthened significantly in the transfer window and Palace and Watford are both stronger than City in every sense.
Charlton came to the King Power with a recent away record of one point in 5 games; they also had a tough away match last Saturday at Hull which you would have expected to take something out of them whilst we had no game. So how could it be that Charlton were better than us in every department – they were fitter, more determined and better organised – and at no stage did we get on top of them.
City have been exposed as a bunch of flat-track bullies. When the opposition are weak we hammer them but when they show spirit and grit we lack the stomach for the fight and degenerate into a bunch of 'fancy dans.'
In the middle of the first half the crowd became incensed by the number of 50-50 balls that we either failed to challenge for or were physically brushed aside from when we did. From a very early point it was obvious that we were unlikely to win this game and in fact Charlton were very good measure for their win. Yet their side contained two City cast-offs both of whom played well.
The early signs were not totally discouraging. We made progress down their left and three times got into potentially dangerous positions but each time the crosses were appalling, all failing to get past the first defender. Charlton meanwhile were competitive but not showing much going forward.
The first goal was likely to be crucial and it fell to them by courtesy of a terrible mistake by Drinkwater. His completely blind back pass was easily intercepted and a good cross gave Kermorgant a simple finish. A shocking error which gave City a hill to climb. They never looked like doing it!
We huffed and puffed for the rest of the half but Charlton were nothing if not resolute. A curious feature of the play was that wherever the ball went in Charlton's half they always had at least two defenders to our one attacking player. In short they pressed us and City don't like to be pressed. Even as we tried to bring the ball out of defence they pressed so we constantly played sideways and backwards.
Only Morgan showed the fire in his belly by storming forwards occasionally and defying the opposition to come and take it off him. He is one of the few City players who radiate the physicality you need to succeed at this level. He was one of the few City players who played well last night. Enough said!
The second half followed the same pattern as the first with Pearson keeping faith with his players and his system, though the latter always seems to leave us short of numbers in midfield as opponents play a basic 4-5-1 against our 4-4-2. The crowd, less than 20,000, did their best to liven City up and perhaps thought they had succeeded when Wood produced an excellent finish after a surging run from de Laet. Wood did not have a particularly great game but you cannot argue with a return of 8 from 7.
At this point hope sprang eternal but not for long as a Charlton sub, Haynes, preparing for his first kick of the match was lucky enough to see the ball bounce invitingly in front of him 20 yards out level with the right post. He tried a speculative punt across the keeper and was delighted to see it dip unstoppably into the far corner of the net. A real Sheffield Wednesday of a goal. This naturally completely knocked the stuffing out of both City and the fans. The game was over and everybody knew it.
City: Schmeichel, de Laet, Morgan, Keane, Konchesky, Marshall (Dyer 64), James (King 80), Drinkwater, Knockaert (Gallagher), Nugent, Wood
Charlton: Hamer, Solly, Morrison, Cort, Wiggins, Dervite (Haynes 77), Pritchard, Jackson, Stephens (Wilson 90), Wagstaff (Taylor 90), Kermorgant
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation