Addicks rob brave County

Jim Gannon made three changes to the team that earned a point against Rotherham last week. Liam Dickinson is out for a month with a broken wrist in two places, David Poole also picked up a knock against Rotherham on Saturday. Right back Jamie Smith was down with a virus and couldn’t make the game. So Adam Proudlock, Dominic Blizzard and Michael Bowler all returned.
Countys first chance fell to Matty McNeil in the 15th minute, with on loan full back Paul Tierney whipping in a cross, McNeils flick slid past the post though. Charlton were tight with the ball, rarely giving anything away, until Tierney stole the ball and played it down the flank for Adam Proudlock to give chase. Proudlock won the ball, and seeing Gary Dickers run into the box, played an amazing cross, like he has previously this season, to Dicker, but his mistimed effort sailed over.
County were holding their own in the game so far against quality opposition, including the likes of Chinese captain Zheng Zhi and former Portsmouth and Wigan forward Sletoslav Todorov.
And it was Todorov who got the ball rolling for Charlton, his drilled strike from the edge of the area gave Conrad Logan no chance. Charlton 1-0 County.
Any ideas of a comeback were presumably gone, when five minutes before the break, Izale McLeod went tumbling in the box from a Michael Bowler challenge. Of course, it was bound to be a penalty, with the former MK Franchise player an expert in the ‘winning penalties’ field. McLeod stepped up, but Logan brilliantly punched it away. But County have been on the wrong end of poor refereeing decisions of late, and this was not going to stop now. The over-zealous linesman had seen some form of County encroachment, and ordered a retake. So, Zheng Zhi stepped up, and 2-0.
So at halftime, Gannon swapped McNeil and Bowler with wingers Adam Griffin and Anthony Pilkington, in hopes of an urealistic, or so people thought, comeback.
Two minutes into the second half, it looked like bringing on Pilkington had worked, beating Darren Randolph and getting his shot in, unfortunatley it flew off target.
But resilient County were not giving up, and on 54 minutes, the energetic Proudlock lobbing Darren Randolph to give the travelling fans hope.
From then on, it was all County, and Anthony Elding, returning to goalscoring form, recieved a near post ball from Irishman Dicker, and slotted the ball past Randolph. The County fans were going mad, it was 2-2!
Alright lads now, it’s 2-2, well played, now sit on it for a while, don’t get too excited. No chance!
In the 70th minute, Adam Proudlocks cross was headed away to Dom Blizzard, who slammed it home into the top corner. 3-2 County, and what a comeback!
But with a team full of internationals and former Premiership stars, we couldn’t expect Charlton just to let us walk over them.
Lloyd Sam wrecked the County fans dream of a thrilling Cup victory with a sailing free kick that Logan left, thinking the ball would sail over. So just Countys luck, it flew into the top corner.
With Countys game kicking off a little late, it went on longer than the rest, with full time results pouring in from all over the country, County still had five minutes to go to extra time.
But, Alan Pardew is not stupid, he didn’t want to go to extra time, not when County were on fire. So again, typical of Countys luck the Charlton winger beat Paul Tierney deep into stoppage time, and Paddy McCarthy popped up at the far post with a header into the top corner. 4-3 Charlton, and Countys dreams were well and truly wrecked.
So it was over, but what an effort from County! 2-0 down against Premiership quallity, no-one expected it to go down to the wire like that. I’ve given star player to Jason Taylor, but the whole team were amazing, and did the County fans proud. The fans knew this, and stayed behind afterwards to clap the players off. Not a lot of people didn’t expect County to win, and though we didn’t, we came close, and shocked Charlton and Alan Pardew, who could be forgiven for thinking the game was over at half-time.