Last night saw Exeter City beaten 4-1 by Charlton Athletic in South East London. 741 loyal supporters made the trip to the capital for the midweek fixture and were unfortunately witness to a heavy defeat.
There was early promise for the Grecians who led in the game, but key moments and key decisions went against City and they were never able to fully recover.
Charlton started the game strongly, and controlled the first 5-10 minutes which forced City to weather the early storm. The Addicks captain George Dobson was particularly good for the hosts and was dominating the early proceedings in the centre of the park.
City slowly started to make their presence felt in the game and were finding joy through Vinny Harper on the left side. Harper tended to be the free man and he was being found very effectively by Will Aimson on a number of occasions in a tactic which caused Charlton problems.
City started to get more of a foothold and took the lead on the 22nd minute when Reece Cole played a gorgeous pass through the Addicks backline for James Scott to run onto and coolly slot past the keeper.
This certainly gave City some confidence and Scott could have added to his and City’s advantage when Harry Kite laid the ball inside to Scott, who’s first time shot went just over the crossbar.
While Charlton were posing their own threats, City were comfortable until just moments before half time, when Charlton equalised out of nothing. A lofted cross into the area was met by Chuks Aneke, who rose above Fitzwater to head the ball against the bar. Unfortunately for City, the ball fell to Corey Blackett Taylor to fire home and put the sides level going into half time.
The second half started quite franticly, with both teams having chances and the game becoming a bit end to end. I felt City were almost too open at this point and this was giving Charlton plenty of chances to attack our backline.
What followed was a disastrous 10 minute period where the game completely turned on its head.
After another very good and energetic performance, Harper was withdrawn on the hour mark to be replaced by Wildschut.
3 minutes later, Charlton were awarded a penalty after Wildschut caught a Charlton player while attempting to clear the ball. It was an unfortunate penalty to give away, but the challenge was also a little clumsy and the City man should have been aware of his surroundings. That being said, City had what appeared to be an equally good penalty shout in the first half for a similar challenger on Harper.
Aneke stepped up to take the spot kick and shot low to Sinisalo’s right. The Finn made a good save and pushed the ball onto the post, only for it to rebound into the path of Alfie May (a familiar foe) to put Charlton ahead.
Less than 5 minutes after the penalty, there was more controversy when Will Aimson was given a straight red card for a challenge on Alfie May, to reduce City to 10 men. At the time it was clear to see that Will won the ball, the only question was whether he used excessive force and it did look like he went in with studs up. Having watched various different angles and replays since the game finished, it is very obvious that the studs were not up, and Will got to the ball and poked it away with his toe. Aimson had been having another very good performance and the sending off was a huge blow to City.
To add salt to the wounds of losing Aimson, Jack Fitzwater then pulled up with an apparent calf problem that meant he had to be replaced by Pierce Sweeney. This will potentially leave City short of options and back up in defence for the next couple of matches, unless City decide to appeal (and win) the Aimson decision.
From this point, things went from bad to worse. In fairness to City, they still tried to take the game to Charlton and look for an equaliser with 10 men, but in doing so, this left City open in midfield and allowed Charlton to isolate our players in targeted attacks.
Charlton added to their tally in the 78th & 85th minutes through Miles Leaburn and Blackett Taylor to give the score line a slightly harsh sound to it.
That’s 3 defeats in a row for City in the league and 4 defeats in 5. It’s a concerning run of form, but its not the time to hit the panic button just yet, despite the tough run of fixtures about to come.
I personally think that City’s style of play has suffered with the absence of Ryan Trevitt in the midfield. The partnership that he had struck up with Tom Carroll was a joy to watch and I feel our creativity has dipped since his injury. I feel he has been our biggest miss of all the absentees.
We also need reinforcements at the top of the end of pitch. James Scott is having a good season but we need more options. Jack Aitchison managed another 20 minutes on Tuesday and hopefully he will soon be back to full fitness. How close Admiral Muskwe is to fitness is anyone’s guess, but he was said to be “close” before the Northampton game. Hopefully he is back in the squad soon and if he can hit the ground running, even better.
City are now 11 games in, almost a quarter of the way through the season and are sitting in a very respectable 10th position. If you had offered most City fans 10th position after 11 games before the season started, they would have snapped your hand off (I certainly would have).
City’s strong start to the season and the added excitement of the Carabao Cup run raised every City fans expectations and I think it’s fair to say that everyone got a little bit carried away (myself included) with how the team was performing.
City’s chance to bounce back is against in form Barnsley at SJP this Saturday. It won’t be an easy task, The Tykes are in 4th spot, the top scorers in the league with 24 goals (albeit aided by the 7-0 opening day win against Port Vale) and they are also top of the Away league table, having won 4 of their 5 games away from home so far this season (drawing the other). They have in form players in Devante Cole, currently top of the League One scoring charts with 9 goals and Nicky Caddon, who has registered 2 goals and 4 assists from the left wing. That being said, the teams they have beaten I would expect them to be beat. They have lost games to Portsmouth, Blackpool & Peterborough.
Caldwell and the coaching staff will take confidence in the fact that City did the double over Barnsley last season and that they were able to come up with an effective gameplan to counter Barnsley’s strengths.
If City can put in a performance, stay in the game and get the crowd behind them, then we all know that anything can happen when we play at SJP. Having lost our last 2 home games against Orient & Northampton this feels like an important game for City and one in which they need to stop the rut. Try and win the game by all means, but we also need to stop this run of defeats and build back up from there.
See you all on Saturday. Up the City.
A View From The Bank 