Blues’ winning streak ends at Charlton, watched by Andy Munro.
Charlton have always been a strong side, back to the days when they were plying their trade in the cavernous amphitheatre that was the old Valley.
True to form, they fairly easily beat an off-key Blues side and the stats probably say it all in that Charlton had more than twice the number of shots as the visitors. In fairness, Blues had 75 per cent of play, although how much of that was in the Charlton half would be interesting to know.
On the plus side, Blues are still top of the league with a game in hand so it’s not all doom and gloom if, as we all hope, it is just a blip and they bounce straight back.
At the back, keeper Ryan Alsopp was fairly solid apart from one Peacock-Farrell moment and the full-backs were generally solid defensively but not really given the chance to get forward.
Unfortunately, when Krystian Bielik was injured and replaced at half-time, Cristoph Klarer suddenly looked nervous. However, perhaps the most disappointing aspect was the ineffectiveness of Paik Seung-ho and Tomoki Iwata, who underpin much of what is generally classy about the Blues.
Further up front, Keshi Anderson failed to make much of an impression, ditto Alfie May. Perhaps the only effective forward play came from Jay Stansfield, but even he struggled to make an effort. Let’s hope it was just a bad day at the office!