Addicks Face The Drop

Harvey Clare rounds up Charlton’s recent results and reflects on the chances of The Addicks staying up.

Since the Easter break, Charlton have played three games and have managed to pick up a possible four points from nine, and relegation still looms over the south-east London side.

Charlton 2-1 Birmingham City.

There was late drama in this thrilling win as Portuguese defender, Jorge Teixeira, netted a 94th-minute winner to keep Charlton’s Championship survival hopes alive. They came from behind to beat Birmingham City at The Valley.

Arsenal loanee John Toral opened up the scoring for Birmingham on the 32nd minute but that lead only lasted for six minutes as a Berg Gudmundsson shot deflected off an opponent then bounced off Paul Robinson before finding its way into the net.

This hectic match was also met with a mini protest when Charlton fans threw hundreds of small sponge footballs on to the pitch seconds into the game. There were also chants aimed at owner Roland Duchatelet.

This isn’t the first time the Addicks held a protest this season as the fans carried out a similar event against Middleborough on March 13th. Coincidentally, Charlton also won that game, 2-0.

 

Ipswich Town 0-0 Charlton.

Even though it was an impressive performance from the visitors in this match, it wasn’t enough to gain all three points as Charlton had to settle for a draw.

Manager Jose Riga made three changes to the side which won at The Valley against Birmingham, one of which was Yaya Sanogo who returned to the side having completed his three-game suspension.

As for Ipswich, this was their third consecutive game where they failed to score, denting their hopes for a play-off place.

After the match, Riga said that his team will be needing a “miracle” to avoid relegation.

 

QPR 2-1 Charlton.

Charlton’s hopes of avoiding relegation from the Championship were dented severely by Dutch striker Nasser el Khayati’s 94th minute stoppage-time winner.

This result now means that the Addicks are 10 points adrift of safety with only four games remaining.

Charlton’s Jordan Cousins equalized for the visitors when the Englishman shot from outside the box just after the hour mark. With less than 30 minutes remaining it looked certain that the Addicks would gain a point from this match, but it was not to be.

In his press conference, Riga gave a statement implying he does not think his team will be staying in the Championship.

“The only hope is that the Charlton fans can see again that the side was really competitive, with not just good spirit, but a style of play.” Riga added: “When you do your job as we did today, at least your own feeling is that you have done your job.”

With Charlton now 10 points adrift from 21st-place Rotherham and only four games remaining, it looks certain that Charlton will be relegated. The players will now have to play for pride when they face 5th- placed Derby this weekend.

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