Shameful! Charlton Athletic v Blackpool needed to be investigated under the Trades Description Act

Blackpool 1

Ryan 90

Charlton 0

By Kevin Nolan at Bloomfield Road

Among the cautionary posters bossing the citizens of Britain about during the dark days of World War Two was one which sternly demanded to know whether their journey was really necessary. It reminded them that the road and rail links were for essential use only and were to be kept clear of non-vital traffic.

The same question could be reasonably asked of 264 wretched South-East Londoners who gathered in Blackpool on a chilly Tuesday evening to support a football team clearly unwilling to prolong the agony of this miserable season.

Its players turned up in body but not spirit, so to speak, and made a shameful contribution to a game so desperately inept it should be investigated under the Trades Description Act. At least their hosts derived some satisfaction from their added-time winner and were entitled to celebrate their first home victory since October.

It hardly came as a surprise that it was Charlton who, with extensive “previous” in such matters, co-operated in ending the sequence.

For Karl Robinson’s spineless, directionless side, no such consolation was available, not that they cared anyway. Their journey was not so much unnecessary as totally pointless, in every sense of the word. They had apparently harked back to that wartime warning and stayed at home, sending mere shadows of themselves to go through the gruesome motions we endured at Bloomfield Road.

That they somehow survived intact until the first of four added minutes before succumbing spoke more eloquently of the Seasiders’ own fecklessness than of any bloody-minded determination on their part. The home side, despite a telling corner count of 16-1 in their favour, made the heaviest of weather of beating a ghost team.

The blow-by-blow details of this dog’s dinner of a game, meanwhile, can be dismissed as meaningless. Think of “two bald men fighting over a comb” and you’re on the right track, one which is leading  both of these embattled clubs towards stodgy mid-table finishes. That will be accepted with slightly more satisfaction by Blackpool, where expectations are lower than at Charlton, whose delusions are fuelled by grandeur.

If anything, the flamboyant, universally loathed clique of Oystons are held in more contempt than the mole-like Roland Duchatelet, whose turbulent tenure as sole owner of the Addicks appears – but only appears – to be drawing to a close. Between them, they have popularised the boycott as a political weapon. Bloomfield Road on Tuesday was more mausoleum than football stadium while The Valley, where Fleetwood Town are the visitors tomorrow, will hardly be bulging at the seams.

Their 91st-minute winner, from Blackpool’s point of view, at least justified the dreadful dross which preceded it.

It had a slightly unlucky villain in Ben Amos, previously the only Addick poised to emerge with credit from this waking nightmare, who charged recklessly from his goal in response to only marginal danger. His inconclusive clearance was instantly returned behind him, blocked on the line but drilled efficiently into the bottom left corner of a gaping net by Tangerines’ skipper Jimmy Ryan.

Scorers of a late equaliser at The Valley earlier in the season, the Seasiders had noticeably perked up once the added time board was brandished. The word is out on their clock-watching victims.

With his team’s promotion credentials finally exposed as pie-in-the-sky posturing, Robinson faced the post-game music, opened his heart and boldly placed the blame for Charlton’s steady deterioration where he feels it belongs.

“The delay in take-over…I’ve been told it’s completely up in the air. It could be next season, it could be the summer, it could be two weeks, it could be two months. I wish my holiday was the same length as the ‘two weeks’ they’ve taken. I feel sorry for the people who come and watch us.” Then throwing caution to the winds, the frustrated manager concluded…”this is a reality check. If I’ve got to get into trouble for saying it, I don’t care. It’s the truth. People’s careers are going down the pan.”

The latest in a long line of managers who have run afoul of the secretive Duchatelet – a line which began with the sacking of Charlton stalwart Chris Powell in 2014 – Robinson is clearly beyond worrying about the consequences of speaking out. His concern for the paying public is genuine but his ability to motivate his team appears compromised. If the club is sold, chances are the new owners will choose to name a manager of their own.

Damned if he does, equally damned if he doesn’t, the likeable Scouser’s security was based on the success of his team. And look where that got him.

Charlton (4-3-2-1): Amos 5, Solly 3 (Aribo 59, 3),  Pearce, 3, Bauer 3, Page (Sarr 25, 3), Forster-Caskey 3, Reeves 3, Konsa 3, Fosu 3, Magennis 3, Zyro 3 (Marshall 87). Not used: Maynard-Brewer, Jackson, Ajose, Lennon.