3 weeks ago
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The concerned noise surrounding Leicester may not have quieted at the Valley but Martí Cifuentes’s team, who are looking to make a return to the Premier League as soon as possible, brushed aside the doubts – and Charlton’s high-intensity press – to pick up their first away win of the season. Abdul Fatawu’s sensational strike was the sole goal in a victory that ended a streak of nine winless away games.
The style of play Cifuentes has tried to implement is clear, with the visitors favouring the triangle of Hamza Choudhury, Boubakary Soumaré and Fatawu to get the ball up the pitch. But Charlton were aggressive from the first whistle despite the lack of possession and Conor Coventry specifically covered a lot of ground in midfield to block the passing lanes of Leicester’s right-sided trio. As a result of the press, it was the hosts with the early chances, with Tyreece Campbell and Greg Docherty having back-to-back shots blocked in the fourth minute before Miles Leaburn’s shot on target getting deflected into the away end.
Leicester have yet to bring in a striker to replace Jamie Vardy, who left this summer after 13 seasons at the club and 200 goals in all competitions. Instead the club have begun the season with Jordan Ayew as their starting No 9. But if there was a game for the club to rethink their activity in the market it would have been this one. Ayew certainly has experience under his belt but the 33-year-old’s best days are behind him. The visitors longed for a striker to drop deep to pick up the ball and dictate play in the final third. Instead Ayew was isolated and struggled against Charlton’s Lloyd Jones. When he did drop deep, he often failed to evade the tackle or win the foot race.
Charlton’s chances continued until the end of the half, successfully evading the press in the 35th minute to get the ball to Rob Apter, whose cross failed to find a red shirt as it flashed across the face of goal before Coventry’s long-range shot from 35 yards forced Jakub Stolarczyk to tip it over.
The hosts won two back-to-back corners to start the second half, both taken by Coventry. From the first Jones’s header was deflected away, before Amari’i Bell’s was saved off the line. They were moments Charlton would come to regret as seconds later the ball was in the back of the net at the other end.
For all of the hosts’ resilient defending, there was little they could do as Fatawu skipped forward, cut inside from the right and curled an outrageous finish into the far top corner to give the visitors the lead. It was the first goal Charlton conceded this season.
Despite their team conceding, the 22,183 Charlton faithful were booming their support as the hosts upped their press at every opportunity, Leaburn coming close to intercepting a pass from Stolarczyk to Jannik Vestergaard inside the box.
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The corners continued to come for the hosts and in the 67th minute they were agonisingly close to an equaliser as the ball trickled towards the wrong side of a post after a chaotic corner was looped across the goal by Jones. Charlton thought they were level in the 82nd minute from their 12th corner after Jones’s header slipped past Stolarczyk, but it was ruled out for a foul in the box. The decision brought some less-than-savoury chants towards the referee Dean Whitestone from the home fans.
The hosts’ final corner, in the 90th minute, was headed just over the bar by Campbell.
