A first half where Charlton surprisingly allowed the visitors a lot of space gradually subsided into the expected dominance of the home team, but there was no real goal threat. The crowd silenced. My mind, inspired, if that's the word, by the shape of the visitors' manager - was drifting away into Donald Magill territory. Eurgh.
The referee (Keith Stroud) then gave a very dubious freekick to Rotherham, which safely bounced away behind the goal line off a Rotherham player's back. So naturally Stroud then gave a corner. Outrage! Charlton's played showed their disgust by refusing to defend it, and Rotherham went 1-0 up.
It wasn't deserved, of course, but such shocking defending can't be excused.
The second half saw Vetokele replaced by Makienok after 63 minutes. Vetokele hadn't been making a huge impact - perhaps he's still not quite match fit - and the game changed. Makienok is still improving and he shook up play, eventually creating the chance for Bauer to get his first goal for the club.
No-one had a really bad game, and on the whole Charlton should have won, probably quite easily. But I felt that almost everyone was slightly off their best, and there were only fitful signs of the close, almost telepathic, relationship between players that we've sometimes seen. *shrug* These things happen. A game to forget.
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