Charlton 2 County 2
Another season, another ex-Prem League One team heading for a midweek replay they won’t fancy under the EP lights…
Sunday 27 November 2022
Three cheers for County still being in the FA Cup… Hippo Hippo Hooray!
A very warm welcome to your Sunday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore, as we look forward to another exciting FA Cup replay under the Edgeley Park floodlights. A trip to Rotherham was awaiting the winners when Bolton came to SK3 this time last year; let’s hope there’s a far more juicier carrot dangling after the draw for round three. That’s at 7pm tomorrow on BBC Two. Before the draw, however, let’s take a look back at yesterday’s action from The Valley with Sue Gallop and Will Howells.
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Des Junior
Yesterday’s match in one word:
Sue - Disappointing.
Will - Tenacious.
Pre-match thoughts:
Sue - I thought it would be tight but we’d have enough quality in our team to win it.
Will - I went into yesterday not too worried about what would happen. Getting into the third round and a decent draw is what we all want but equally there would be no shame in losing away at mid-table League One opposition. It was almost a no lose situation for us.
That being said, knowing how good we can be when we’re on song, and that they weren’t in great form, I had high hopes that we could at least bring them back to EP for a replay...
Post-match thoughts:
Sue - I feel frustrated that we didn’t hold on to the win even though County deserved something from the game.
Will - We deserve a second go at knocking these out after that performance. If someone was asked to say who played a division higher I reckon they’d say us on the balance of 90 minutes. Both sides showed a lot of fight in both boxes with Charlton putting bodies on the line to keep us out for 51 minutes of the second half.
Verdict on Charlton:
Sue - Lacklustre and disorganised at times. I wasn’t impressed until we made substitutions which livened us up a bit.
Will - Aside from the first 10 minutes, they were better than us in the first half, just not as clinical as Orient were last week thankfully. Second half they were only a threat on the counter and although there were some scary moments we mostly had them well marshalled. They were very switched on at the back, throwing bodies in the way of everything in the second half as we were hunting for our equaliser.
Verdict on County:
Sue - Looked like they wanted it more than us.
Will - Outstanding first ten minutes, rest of the first half was mediocre, but an excellent and spirited second half that ended with the equaliser we wanted. A draw was the least we deserved overall. No bad performers in a County shirt, I just wish Crankshaw would improve his final ball decision-making. He’ll be an outstanding player at this level if he does.
Top Addick:
Sue - Possibly Inniss.
Will - Annoyingly I’d have to give it to their number 14, Kirk. He was a showboating pillock who I think should have seen red on six minutes for a sickening lunge at Hinchliffe’s standing leg. He’s lucky he didn’t walk and we’re lucky we didn’t lose another keeper to injury - absolutely no attempt to play the ball and it looked intentional to me. All that said he was probably their most skilful attacking player and looked a constant danger. I’d say I was relieved when he was subbed off but I didn’t notice as I was entirely focused on what we were doing.
Special mention to their number 22, Aneke. Not for being good but for his quite spectacular tantrum in the middle of the park just before half-time. After giving away a free-kick he grabbed the ball and walked away with it, whinging that he’d won it fairly in the tackle. He then launched into a verbal tirade that could be heard clearly from the away end (bear in mind this took place on the halfway line) and I still don't understand how the ref didn’t book him. Absolutely pathetic from him and I did enjoy the taunting he took from the County fans as a result.
Top Hatter:
Sue - Rydel.
Will - I don't think anybody massively stood out among a whole host of solid performances, but I’d probably have to say Akil Wright just for some excellent tackles he had no right making and those surging forward runs he makes. He’s fast turning into a really exciting prospect in our side and looks ideal in the attacking right-centre-back role.
Atmosphere:
Sue - Charlton fans were very quiet and subdued, no noise where I was sitting. Thought County fans were good.
Will - It was my first trip to The Valley despite living not all that far from London and my first impressions were good. It has that enclosed tight feeling similar to the likes of Loftus Road (though not as extreme as QPR’s home) and has a railway station even closer than EP is to Stockport (which makes the ASLEF strike significantly reducing service an even bigger shame as a quick and easy getaway was lost). The away end is one of those with a roof at just the right level as to keep everyone dry and allow fans to make a racket easily - too much bird shit on the seats though.
County fans excellent as always for the full 90. Home fans dreadful, they even took about 10 seconds to celebrate their equaliser.
Hopes for the rest of the season:
Sue - Mid-table is my best hope based on performances of late.
Will - After 11 years of non-league wilderness I maintain that mid-table in League Two feels good - and if that’s the extent of what we get from this season then I’m fine with that. We’re capable of more though, and if we play to our full potential then the play-offs are definitely within reach and top three not impossible. Keeping an FA Cup run going would be nice too.
The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 2-2 draw at Charlton Athletic on Saturday 26 November 2022, as told from Des Junior’s three County-related WhatsApp groups…
10.25am: My son who lives in south London says there's a jellied eel van in the car park. But there's food too.
11:14am: Best description yet of England’s performance last night:
2.03pm: Don’t understand why we’re resting players when we’ve got a week between games. Hopefully pays off.
2.53pm: Ryan Johnson and James Brown in the away end.
3.04pm: 1-0 County. Good start! Hussey with a cross that went in. I'm relying on the radio here though...
3.09pm: County Twitter also giving it to Hussey, at least for now. That’s twice he’s got one in from that angle now.
3.24pm: 1-1. That was coming. Soft goal too.
3.28pm: This is following last week’s pattern.
3.40pm: 2-1 down. Too easy. Looked offside to me. Where’s VAR when you need it!?
4.02pm: Goals just shown on Match of the Day Live as a half-time round-up. All three are poor defensively, but how the fuck did their equaliser go in?
4.23pm: Madden’s getting ready to come on.
4.24pm: And Hippo.
4.49pm: It feels like one of those days it’s just not going to fall for us in the box.
4.52pm: At least we’ll have 17 minutes of extra time.
4.55pm: 7 minutes added on.
4.56pm: Only 10 minutes short!
5.01pm: 2-2! Hippooooo. Get in!
5.02pm: I am in love, I can’t deny.
5.03pm: Radio London say County deserve it.
5.15pm: BBC must fancy coming back for the replay after the Bolton battering last season.
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Stockport photo of the day
A6, Stockport
The place to be during the first Jim Gannon era, with County fans piling in straight off the train home from victories at places like Accrington and Hereford, Cobdens is now being turned into flats. For just £150,000 you could wake up in bed in the exact same position Pete Best and Matthew Rudd played Saturday night bangers from Duran Duran and Depeche Mode to a lot of pissed Hatters. That’s a price worth paying.
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Matt Walker ‘eats’ the World Cup
🇹🇳 No 6 - Tunisia (Acacus) 🇹🇳
“Technical issues meant Acacus' television didn't get going until the 56th minute. Fortunately, their Tunisian chef was on point with a delicious lamb and vegetable cous cous. And the football team similarly so with a deserved draw against Denmark.”
One of my favourite football books is Matt Walker’s Europe United, in which the author and Fulham fan spends a whole season taking in a game in all 55 UEFA countries. Well he’s back with another fun challenge, to experience Qatar 2022 in restaurants and bars across London which represent all 32 competing nations. Matt has kindly allowed me to use his photos and I’ll bring you one each day, giving you a tasty flavour of the World Cup, in more ways than one.
Today in SK
🥁 Happy Mondays drummer and co-founder Gaz Whelan is at Bask tonight for an evening of electric and acoustic songs and stories, joined by guitarist Mike Bee. Support from The Lanks. Doors at 6.30pm. Tickets £8.