City 1 Charlton 1
A last minute goal, inevitably by Paddy McCarthy making his first return to the Walkers after his summer transfer to Charlton, denied City what would have been three hard-earned points in the last home match of 2007. So still no consecutive home wins since August 2006. It seems longer!
The only winner of this game was the wind which swirled around the stadium throughout the game and made sustained good quality football impossible. The first half, which was almost devoid of chances showed this all too clearly and City spent most of the time reorganising after a rash of early substitutions.
It all began with Kisnorbo and Mattock tackling each other rather than their opponent with young Mattock coming off the worse. This incidentally was one of several occasions when two City players went for the same ball and presumably stems from Ollie's directive to press and challenge. Mattock soldiered on for 10 minutes or so before giving it best and being replaced by Sheehan. Not a day for City's full-backs as Stearman had already been flattened by a physical Iwelumo who later just managed to avoid a second yellow card having been booked for the Stearman incident.
No sooner had we got one sub on than a second was required. Collins John pulled up with no one near him and shuffled off to be replaced by Hayes. I shall be glad when John's loan period is up as he is almost Cort Mk 2 and had already incurred the wrath of the crowd by his disinclination to do little more than the bare minimum. Not the sort of player that City fans appreciate.
City now reorganised at the double. Kenton who had initially started farcically at wide right as we had no one else went to left back pushing Sheehan up to wide left; this forced Hayes to play wide right in spite of him being a totally left-footed player. Hume who started wide right then crossed to wide left now played up front with Fryatt!! I hope you are following all this. Not surprisingly we struggled to find any fluency though generally the commitment could not be faulted….
Charlton failed to take advantage of City's problems and did not manage a single shot on goal in the entire half. Jerome Thomas impressed with some driving runs from midfield – Ollie should make a video of these and show them to City's midfielders as a teaching aid – but midfield promise never turned into penalty area threat.
We did a little better with a Fryatt cross being thumped into the side netting by Stearman who had commendably made a long forward run and shortly afterwards Fryatt rounded the keeper at an already acute angle and his shot from near the goal-line was cleared by a covering defender. Half-time 0-0 and never looked like being anything else.
City were instantly better in the second period, Hume bringing an early save from Weaver. For 30 minutes we had the greater possession and occasionally threatened. The crowd responded vigorously but Charlton held firm without major alarm. Indeed they had their only attempt on target, apart from their goal, when Varney made space for himself in the penalty area and drew a good save from Fulop. Leics lad, Varney, had a decent game and would walk into our team.
Sheehan, who had a poor game, was replaced by the returning Wesolowski, a crowd favourite because he adds industry to talent and almost immediately City went ahead. Hume seized on a defensive error to put Fryatt in on the right; his cross was cleared but only to Stearman whose accurate ball to the far post was headed home by Clemence. Cue ecstatic celebrations followed by panic at the thought we still had 15 minutes to hold out.
Ollie now took the decisive gamble – he changed to 5-4-1! You would think he knew about City's legendary failure to prevent opponents from scoring late goals but if he did it made no difference. We simply are not good enough to invite opponents on to us for 15 minutes of non-stop attack. Sides who can do this keep possession for long spells whereas we struggle to make 3 passes to our own players.
Predictably we went under the cosh. With time ticking away they got a free-kick inside our half. The ball was floated in and deflected upwards around the penalty spot. Fulop hesitated then went for the ball. He had already flapped uncharacteristically at a cross minutes earlier and surely such an accomplished player – by our current standards – would not make a second mistake. Well he did! He simply helped the ball across to the far post where McCarthy hooked it back across the goal. Everyone watched in slow motion as the ball floated in just under the bar. The keeper was nowhere to be seen! Cue abject misery!
McCarthy to his credit only engaged in the briefest of celebrations and at the end of the match swapped shirts with Kisnorbo. I felt as though he had got mine as well! There was only enough time left for one more Charlton thrust which made us realise that we could actually lose this match and that one point is better than none. Given the team we have at present, any points are worthwhile until the reinforcements arrive.
2008 must see more coming and going than East Midlands Airport. We have perhaps 5 players, discounting youngsters, who could form the nucleus of a side contesting promotion so the scale of the problem is clear. There never was a better time to keep the faith. Happy New Year!
City
Fulop, Stearman, McAuley, Kisnorbo, Mattock (Sheehan 15, Wesolowski 76), Kenton, N'Gotty, Clemence, Hume, John (Hayes 22), Fryatt
Booked: Clemence, Hayes Goal: Clemence
Charlton
Weaver, Bougherra, McCarthy, Fortune(Moutaouakil 65), Powell, Thomas, Samedo (Sam 80), Zhi, Holland, Varney, Iwelumo
Booked; Iwelumo Goal: McCarthy
Att: 23,667 Ref: Scott Mathieson (Cheshire).
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