Dan Thomas’ Charlton Athletic Trust side suffered a surprising setback to their Conference Youth league campaign at the Sparrows Lane ground on the 30th September, losing 2-0 to Cambridge United.
From the kick–off, Cambridge looked more determined and aggressive than Charlton. While they played some nice passing triangles, dominated the midfield and closed down fast, we were slow to start, lacking in concentration and competitiveness.
Cambridge’s opener came early in the first half. The opposition were allowed to shoot unopposed from the edge of the box and the keeper got down low to the ball but only parried it straight into the opposition’s number 8 who tapped in to an empty goal
In the second half we came out the stronger side after a rousing motivational speech from coach Thomas, in particular demanding more from the midfield. We went into challenges better, winning more of the first and second balls; we passed the ball around fluently and the centre forwards held the ball up well.
As a result we started to develop opportunities to score; Folkes beat Cambridge’s centre backs only to shoot straight at the keeper, and Ismail had a long range effort from a corner denied.
Despite getting back into the game and pressurising Cambridge heavily throughout the second half; Charlton threw the game away with another sloppy mistake, and Cambridge’s second goal effectively finished the match off. It came from a free kick, played down the line – we were caught napping and failed to pick up their movement, the ball was simply passed round the wall, crossed and tapped in.
This was a disappointing result after last week’s strong performance against Romford. Charlton will have to work on their focus and competitiveness if they want to do well in this league.
By Ayodele Olaniyan
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