Charlton 0-1 Middlesbrough – Addicks fall into the drop zone
Charlton dropped into the Championship’s bottom three after they lost 1-0 at home to Middlesbrough.
Confirmed Teams:
Charlton: Phillips; Matthews, Pearce, Oshilaja, Purrington; Pratley, Cullen, Lapsile, Williams; Taylor
Middlesbrough: Stojanovic; Shotton, Tavernier, Clayton, Gestede, Howson, McNair, Moukoudi, Johnson, Wing, Coulson
The hosts started the game poorly. The visitors were quickest to every ball. Boro forced a few early corners, Dillion Phillips coming off his line to punch one of them away.
The problem for Charlton was down the right-hand side. Ben Purrington was struggling to deal with the threat of Paddy McNair and Marcus Tavernier. It was from that side that the only goal of the game arrived.
Rudy Gestede did well to hold the ball up against Purrington, he then crossed for Paddy McNair who had got in between Jason Pearce and Deji Oshilaja all he had to do was guide the ball past Phillips in the Charlton goal.
That failed to wake up Lee Bowyer’s side, who continued to be on the back foot. Lewis Wing going close twice before the break.
Lyle Taylor was enraged that he didn’t get a penalty early in the second half when he appeared to have been brought down in the box. Instead, he was booked for diving.
Bowyer changed things at half-time. Macauley Bonne was introduced for George Lapslie. He was a bright spark in the second half, he was set up by Lyle Taylor but couldn’t get his feet sorted at the vital moment.
Charlton got forward on numerous occasions but failed to find the net as they fell into the relegation zone for the first time this season.