Charlton 2 Ipswich Town 1
The Addicks fell to a narrow defeat at the hands of Ipswich Town at The Valley on Wednesday evening.
Charlton opened the scoring inside the first minute at The Valley. With just 42 seconds on the clock, Tyreece Campbell raced onto a loose pass from Ben Johnson. He fired the ball towards goal, but saw his shot saved by Christian Walton and Greg Docherty was on hand to fire home the rebound to put the Addicks in front.
After a positive start, the hosts sufferes a blow when Amari’i Bell was forced off through injury after 18 minutes and was replaced by Luke Chambers.
Ipswich had a chance to level the scoring in the 23rd minute through Iván Azón. He had worked himself into a good position inside the Charlton penalty area, but skewed his shot wide.
Charlie Kelman had a good opportunity to double the Addicks' lead just before the half-hour mark. After some great work on the break from Docherty, the ball was fed into Kelman, who’s effort was a tame one, and was well gathered by Walton at his near post.
Darnell Furlong equalised for Ipswich on 36 minutes with an angled effort that nestled into the bottom corner that evaded the Charlton defence and went beyond the reach of Thomas Kaminski into the bottom left-hand corner.
The Addicks had a half-chance to get back into the lead through Jayden Fevrier, but he fired his effort into the side-netting.
Come half-time, Nathan Jones was forced into another switch with Campbell having to make way with a knock, with Lyndon Dykes entering the fray in his place.
With 58 minutes on the clock, the Tractor Boys went ahead via a penalty when Macaulay Gillesphey was adjudged to have fouled Darnell Furlong in the box. Jaden Philogene stepped up and converted the spot-kick. Thomas Kaminski got a hand to it, but it got away from the Charlton number one, and Ipswich had the lead.
Nathan Jones made a raft of changes in a bid to freshen up his side. Sonny Carey, Harvey Knibbs and Matty Godden were all introduced in the latter stages of the second half, but with Godden pulling up with an injury and with no subs left to make use of, the forward was forced to soldier on in the dying stages to prevent the home side from battling with 10 men.
Kaminski pulled off a fine double save in stoppage time to deny Marcelino Nunez the chance to add to Ipswich’s tally on the break while the Addicks looked to draw themselves level in the dying minutes of the game, but Ipswich came away with all three points, despite plenty of endeavour from Jones' men.
Charlton sit six points clear of the relegation zone with two games remaining. Nathan Jones' men return to Sky Bet Championship action on Saturday for their final home game of the season when they host Hull City (KO 12.30pm BST).
Charlton: Kaminski; Sichenje, Jones, Gillesphey, Fevrier; Coventry, Rankin-Costello (Knibbs 78), Bell (Chambers 18 (Godden 78)); Kelman (Carey 59), Campbell (Dykes 46)
Subs (not used): Mannion, Burke, Coady, Berry
Goals: Docherty 1
Booked: Gillesphey 38 (foul on Azón), Dykes 60 (foul on McAteer)
Ipswich Town: Walton; Furlong, O’Shea, Greaves, Johnson; Matusiwa, Taylor (Neil 70); McAteer (Kipré 86), Mehmeti (Núñez 77), Philogene (J.Clarke 70); Azón (Hirst 77)
Subs (not used): Palmer, Cajuste, Walle Egeli, Akpom
Goals: Furlong 36, Philogene 58
Assists: Matusiwa 36
Booked: Taylor 65 (foul on Fevrier), J.Clarke 90+8 (simulation)
Referee: Robert Madley
Attendance: 19,706 (3,459 from Ipswich)
