Oxford United 3 (Bodin 20, Taylor 24, O'Donkor 82) Charlton 1 (Leaburn 67).
Recently appointed Dean Holden was made painfully aware of the task confronting him in a first half horror show, which was suffered by nearly 1,000 eyewitnesses and an untold number of Livestream viewers. We latter at least had the option of switching off and putting a premature end to our agony. With nowhere to hide, the new boss had his card clearly marked for him.
Winners just five times in twenty three league games, the most recent of which was on October 22nd, Charlton are knee deep in a struggle to avoid the unspeakable prospect of relegation to League Two. Holden's simple brief is to keep them above the trapdoor; any nonsense being spouted about the possibility of joining the promotion battle must be dismissed as the deranged ravings of lunatics.
Making four changes from the side which went close to beating Peterborough three days previously, Holden surprisingly benched goalscorer Miles Leaburn, main playmaker Scott Fraser and defensive pragmatist Ryan Inniss; Steven Sessegnon's absence was no doubt due to injury. Leaburn replaced a down-on-his-luck Jayden Stockley and duly scored again. Inniss relieved a vulnerable Terell Thomas at half-time, at which time the mercurial, wide threats of Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Corey Blackett-Taylor were also unleashed. Charlton's improvement was immediate but already too late. So expect more tinkering at Portsmouth on New Years Day, which is mercifully still two days away. Meanwhile, a disgraceful first half at the Kassam Stadium needs to be looked at first.
For 45 minutes, the Addicks were a corporate mess. Not one among them emerged with individual credit, not even skipper George Dobson, whose performance fell woefully short of the wholehearted, effective contribution we've come to expect as normal. Without his restless ball-winning influence, Charlton visibly sagged. Devoid of fight, passion or even a semblance of commitment, they were second to everything, lost every tackle, showed no appetite and, to be brutally frank, "bottled it". Their lack of backbone was an embarrassment and made for a stormy ride in the interval dressing room and no doubt at Sparrows Lane during the week.
Oxford's opening goal, which the visitors somehow staved off for 20 minutes, was a microcosm of the general malaise. Thomas' efforts to stop Cameron Brannagan's progress down the right wing were feeble but the low cross was crisp and accurate. A ball watching trio comprising Lucas Ness, Sam Lavelle and Sean Clare showed only academic interest as Billy Bodin arrived at the far post and sidefooted into Ashley Maynard-Brewer's gaping net. From United's point of view, it was a goal of outstanding quality. Holden might have a different take on its component parts.
It took Karl Robinson's blokes only three more minutes to double their lead with the help, to be fair, of huge dollop of luck. Bodin experienced little hardship in stepping inside Ness on the left before trying his luck with a drive intended for the far corner. More by luck than any judgement on his part, Matty Taylor diverted the ball past a wrongfooted Maynard-Brewer and, quite rightly, claimed credit for the goal. Not that any of the demoralised visitors were in a mood to dispute its ownership.
Holden's comments on the debacle were predictably pithy. "It's a first half to address, not forget", he declared. "We need to do that quickly before the Portsmouth game. It was unacceptable. The players were made well aware of that at half-time. No doubt we saw a reaction in the second half. Jes, Corey and Miles, in particular, came on and really took the game to the U's backline."
Holden's summing-up, while accurate, raises questions. Why was Leaburn, Charlton's rare handful up front, not started against Oxford? He's full of running and equally full of himself. And surely the pace and power of Rak-Sakyi and Blackett-Taylor should have been deployed alongside him. Both of them created clearcut chances for the hungry youngster, one of which he converted to put the Addicks briefly back in with a chance.
Blackett-Taylor's contribution to Leaburn's goal was starkly simple. Knocking the ball past Elliott Moore, he challenged the defender to a one-on-one foot race, left him wheezing in his wake and crossed accurately from the left byline. Timing his movement expertly, Leaburn minor headed emphatically home. He then had an almost immediate chance to equalise when Rak Sakyi eluded Marcus Browne, faked to move inside but instead played Leaburn through to his right. Aiming for the far corner, the teenage striker was denied by the faintest of touches from McGinty.
Leaburn's near thing was Charlton's final, desperate fling. A game kid but a little out of his depth, Richard Chin had been replaced at left wingback by even less experienced Tyreece Campbell. The new boy failed to stop substitute Wildschut's angled shot, which Maynard-Brewer fumbled and O'Donkor prodded home on the goalline. United's scruffy clincher was an apt footnote to a game which, contrary to Holden's advice "not to forget", should be promptly airbrushed from the memory and, far from "addressed", might more profitably dismissed as never having happened. Ostriches have been getting away with it for years. It works for me.
Oxford: McGinty, Long, Moore, Bodin (Seddon 90), Brannagan (Goodham 90), Taylor (O'Donkor 81), Bate, Browne, McGuane, Murphy (Wildschut 46), Anderson (Findlay 71). Not used: Plumley, Jones.
Charlton: Maynard-Brewer, Ness, Lavelle (Rak-Sakyi 46), Thomas (Inniss 46), Clare, Payne, Dobson, Henry, Chin (Campbell 72), Stockley (Leaburn 60), Kanu (Blackett-Taylor 46). Not used: Harness, Fraser. Booked: Chin, Leaburn, Payne.
Referee: B. Toner. Att: 8,889 (991 visiting).
The post Kevin Nolan’s Match Report: Oxford United v Charlton (29/12/2022) first appeared on Greenwich.co.uk.