It's Round and It's White
No Bradley Wright-Phillips in the Charlton starting XI but Dale Stephens came back with a bang after he rescued Charlton from falling to their first home defeat of the season. His strike puts Charlton 10 points clear at the top of Npower League one but Sheffield United can narrow that with their game in hand.
Charlton started well and could have had the lead inside the first 10 minutes as Danny Green’s whipped freekick was met by Danny Hollands but keeper Cameron Belford stopped the ball between his legs to keep Bury in the game. Charlton continued to storm on the pressure when some good work from Chris Solly saw Leon Clarke misjudge his through ball.
Clarke hasn’t been greeted brilliant by Chrissy Powell’s red army, this was soon to continue after some hard work from Skipper Johnnie Jackson and Rhoys Wiggins saw the ball fall for Clarke, who failed to score his third in three games against Bury by yet again smashing his shot straight at Cameron Belford.
Disaster struck for the Charlton team as Green’s corner was cleared and on the counter attack Bury took over and scored what was a very lucky goal.
A long searching ball from Sweeney fell to Lenell John-Lewis who outmuscled Charlton’s Matt Taylor before Ben Hamer, off-balance, could only help the ball into his own net just before the brake.
The second half was a dull-affair for the most part. The most intresting part of the game was the injury to David Worrall, going down by himself as Charlton had a corner and sat at the edge of the pitch waiting for help. After he received aid, Worrall continued to stay put and got frustrated Hamer by blocking Wiggins from pushing on and helping the Addicks find an equalizer.
Charlton changed their flow as Danny Haynes and Bradley Pritchard came on to make the possible diffrence. It took just 10 minutes for Danny to kick into gear, running past the defence after Yann Kermongrant’s flick on found the new man who was very close to scoring the game’s leveller.
That wasnt long before a blatant handball from a Bury defender was let off by controversial referee Andy D’Urso. Charlton Fans were echoing abuse to the referee, as not only were Bury given the goal kick but ‘keeper Belford began to time waste at every available oppurtunity.
In the 94th minute of the 5 minutes added time a long corner from Green started a pin ball in the box between Haynes, Kermongrant, Phil Parkin and Giles Coke. As Bury cleared the ball, a Stephens rocket shot finally beat keeper Belford, leaving the net rippling.
Charlton fans still know that theres a long way to go but with thier team currently sit 10 points clear at the top, whilst Bury move to 10th in the Npower League one.
Still a long way to go, but sitting 10 points clear is a great place to be in heading into February.
MK Dons and Stevenage coming up in the next few games, gonna be a big month.