The Addicks notched up their third win in a row at Sixfields on Saturday and their fourth clean successive clean sheet. Whilst goals win you games not conceding any goes a long towards it.
Living in Milton Keynes I did toy with the idea of travelling up to watch from the hill but the weather forecast ended such thoughts!
Thus it was settling down on the sofa and watching on Valley Pass. Not being able to see your team playing live is horrible. What pleasure and enjoyment the average Premiership fan and by definition “ armchair fan “ gets is beyond me. At least we get the benefit of the superb commentary team to soften the blow.
The conditions were awful and there were flashbacks to Yeovil away and I think some fans have only just dried out from that!
Seemingly Charlton had already put their clocks back an hour as they never really started playing until the second half.
There was little threat from our boys in the first 45 minutes. The action of note came from the Cobblers who forced a splendid double save from Amos. Charlton’s number one had another excellent game including a lovely kick out to set up our second goal.
The Cobblers set up to be difficult to break down and allied that to persistent and niggly fouls.
Half time saw the introduction of Darren Pratley from the bench as he replaced the largely ineffective Levitt. The United loanee has room for improvement and has yet to adjust to life in league one.
Pratley lifted the whole team and despite playing into the strong wind we looked infinitely better.
When we did take the lead it was Pratley who managed to lash home Inniss’s header from a JFC corner.
Charlton should have doubled the lead when that man Inniss nodded another ball back towards goal and Smyth. Shades of “ Smyth must score “ sadly with the same outcome, he didn’t!
Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long for the second. The impressive Amos caught well under pressure and quickly released Doughty with a lovely flat kick out of his hands. Young Alfie knew what it was all about as he opted to run with the ball rather than dribble.
His positive first touch afforded him the time and space ultimately to get to the bye-line and deliver a menacing cross the was turned into his own net by a Northampton player.
We saw out the rest of the game with relatively little trouble aside from an injury to Doughty that is hopefully a minor one.
Not a great game but another clean sheet, another 3 points and a game when Ben Watson didn’t get a yellow card ( yes I know he didn't set foot on the pitch ) ! What’s not to like!
