Charlton are a let-down against Pompey on a day they paid tribute to 'Headphones Norm'
- By Patrick van Ijzendoorn
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
Championship
Charlton Athletic (0) 1 Fevrier 64
Portsmouth (2) 3 Devlin 22, 55, Bishop 34
After three clean sheets on the spin, with two victories, the Addicks suffered a well-deserved defeat against Portsmouth on Tuesday evening.
‘Goals we normally don’t concede,’ muttered a deflated Addicks-manager Nathan Jones after this relegation battle on a cold evening in Southeast-London. Charlton are 18th in the Championship-table, seven points clear of the drop-zone.
This night to forget for the home side, began as a night of remembrance. Before kick-off the Valley paid tribute to “Headphones Norm' Barker”, the loyal and popular fan who had passed away following a heart-attack during the initial meeting between these sides on December 6th.
That fixture had to be abandoned after 12 minutes. Both home and away fans took part in the minute-long applause for the 68-year old stalwart of the North Stand.
The emotional farewell wasn’t followed by a stirring performance from the club he so dearly loved. It all started well. though, for the home side. Within the first minute wing-back Harry Clarke had an excellent chance to open the score, but his shot was saved by Portsmouth-goalie Nicolas Schmid.
That was all Charlton had to offer in the first 45 minutes, apart from five yellow cards. For the home fans, referee Leigh Doughty soon became the pantomime villain.
A calamity from the experienced Charlton keeper Thomas Kaminski in the 22nd minute set the visitors on course of a much-needed victory. After some clever moves, the ball arrived at Terry Devlin. The Northern-Ireland international took a punt from outside the box, and his curving short nutmegged the unfortunate keeper.
For the Charlton-fans it was a flash-back to the Belgian’s cock-up in the 3-0 away defeat at Stoke City earlier in the season.
John Mousinho’s side duly took control of the game. Ten minutes after the goal, Charlton’s left-back Amari'i Bell handled a cross by Gustavo Caballero, the Paraguayan loanee from Santos who made his debut for Portsmouth. Colby Bishop made no mistake from the penalty spot.
It could have been worse for the Addicks, but they survived some anxious moments in front of their goal. Both the referee and the home side were booed off the pitch after the first half.
During the interval Charlton-manager Nathan Jones took off three players, among them talisman Miles Leaburn, who wasn’t fully fit. There were signs of improvement after the changes but it was Portsmouth that found the net. And again it was Devlin.
Coming from the right, the utility player sent a scorcher in off the post from around 30 yards. This time Kaminski stood no chance. The 2,500 plus away fans in the Jimmy Seed Stand went wild.
After losing 5-1 to Southampton, another heavy home defeat against visitors from the south coast loomed. To their credit Charlton didn’t give up. One of the few positives was the performance of substitute Jayden Fevrier, a product of the Tottenham-academy who is on loan from Stockport County.
A few minutes after he had nearly scored with a long-distance shot, the 22-year finished nicely from Lyndon Dykes' flick-on from a long throw.
The hosts had half-on-hour left for a come-back but they couldn’t break the defence led by Connor Ogilvie. Only substitute Tyrone Campbell came close in extra time, but his shot narrowly missed the target.
By then Portsmouth, missing more than ten players, could already have had their fourth or even fifth goal. ‘We are staying up,’ the travelling support sang. They will come back to this part of the capital on Saturday to face high-flying Millwall.
Addicks: (5-3-2): Kaminski; Clarke (Fevrier 46), Bell, Ramsay, Jones, Chambers (Kelman 80); Coady (Coventry 46), Docherty (Berry 80), Carey; Dykes, Leaburn (Campell 46)
Pompey (4-3-3): Schmid; Swanson (Williams 63), Oglivie, Devlin, Poole; Pack, Adams, Swift (Bowat 79); Alli, Bishop, Caballero (Brown 63)
Attendance: 18.713
