Zheng goes N’ucassle Again
Sunday, 18th March 2007
Attendance: 27,028
Charlton Athletic 2 Newcastle United 0
As stand-in for my old mate Bob Moncur as co-commentator for Century Radio, I made my way from London Bridge to Charlton. The huge train was absolutely chokka with Toon fans which, in itself, was amaking after the Dutch performance. But what really opened my eyes was the variety of accents.
Cockney, Yorkshire, Irish, Aussie, all decked out in black and white. We did the intro to the game. This is a great chance to get back on the rails, Charlton desperate so let's have a go at them.
Solano and Duff at full-back looks to give us an attacking formation and for the first fifty minutes we played Charlton off the park with good crisp passing and better movement. However we did not trouble the opposing 'keeper with most of our progress coming to a halt on or around the 18-yard line.
Then we get the big chance and if we score they will almost certainly go under. But Martins didn't score. He controlled the ball on his chest and looked set to knock the ball past Carson which, indeed, he did do but, regrettably, also past the post.
So what happens, they break away, get a free-kick on the edge of the box, the impressive Darren Bent hits the bar with a fine effort and, guess what, we do not react but Zheng Zi does, and heads into the empty net.
Next direction--downhill! They start playing with a bit of confidence and just to rub salt in the wound they get a second from the spot after Solano impedes the impressive Zheng. Jerome Thomas netted comfortably.
Where do we go from here? How long can we go on hoping?
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