100 (AND A BIT) YEARS OF PRIDE & PASSION

Phil Parkinson was pleased with his team's effort at Walsall and thought they were unfortunate not to win.

He said: "I thought we approached it like the home team and dominated for long periods in the game. The periods of domination that we had we would expect to come away with three points. We conceded a goal against the run of play, but we got ourselves back in the game and played with good energy and good width and got some good deliveries in the box.

"We just needed someone to toe-poke one in from six yards to make it a good night for us. But I couldn't ask for any more from the boys in very difficult conditions.”

For sure the pitch was awful - though playable - but Parkinson is glossing over things a little. Both Leeds and Norwich came from behind to win at the Banks's with late goals. There were some decent crosses but as the manager said, someone needed to toe-poke them home. What he's not explaining is why his experienced strike force did not anticipate or take a gamble on where the ball might go. Leeds' strikers followed every shot up in their match with Tottenham. Both Leeds and Norwich have a clear edge in the quality of their front players.

Most fans were surprised by the number of changes made, particuarly as Parkinson had resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes following the home defeat by Leyton Orient.

This was his logic:"I felt we had dropped off our intensity and level of performances over the last couple of weeks, and we picked a team to get that back tonight. I made some changes which I felt had to be made. There was a freshness about the team and I thought we played with terrific energy in difficult conditions.

"I saw Walsall play Norwich a couple of weeks ago and they thought they were excellent; Chris probably couldn't believe how they lost. We expected a tough game tonight. They have got a good front two and some good players and when they went down to 10 men they made it very difficult for us, which you would expect.

"At that stage they would have taken a point. And we did everything we could in terms of our substitutions to have a go. It just wasn't to be in terms of that final quality ball into the box and someone to get on the end of it.”

Energy is fine but without quality, intelligence and anticipation it will only get you so far and these are the issues that need addressing. Truth be told, Walsall were fairly comfortable in the last few minutes following Deeney's dismissal. They had to defend but they accomplished it without looking to be in serious trouble.

Phil spoke of the lack of goals and this is his opinion:"We have had a lot of good chances of late. Often games are decided when goalscorers take one of those opportunities. It's something we did well early in the season but haven't done of late. That will come again, though. We just need to concentrate on getting the ball in the right areas, and our strikers making the right runs.

"We've only had three league defeats all season, which is very good. But recently we have drawn too many games and we need to convert them into wins.”

Five of the last eight games have been drawn, which has resulted in Leeds and Norwich pulling clear with the Addicks dropping back into the chasing pack. Natural goalscorers know instinctively where to be and this is the type of player that Charlton are sorely missing.The Play-Offs look to be their realistic goal now.

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