Addicks on a winner even before late strike

A late goal can make all the difference. It can bring dramatic relief or deep frustration, changing the lasting perception of a football match in a second.

But strangely, when the moment came at The Valley on Saturday afternoon, deep into stoppage time of Charlton’s first Championship fixture for five years, it was just the sweetest of icing on an already sumptuous multi-layered red and white cake.

Substitute Harvey Knibb’s prodded six-yard winner, following star man Lloyd Jones’s header down from beyond the far post, was certainly an important and euphoric moment, and the crowd celebrated it with suitable exuberance.

But even if Charlton had been denied the win the home fans yearned to see, the sense was that most would have left the sun-kissed Valley replete with satisfaction anyway. It was one of those days, rare in SE7 in the last 18 years, when all seemed right with the football world.

Manager Nathan Jones started five, and ultimately deployed seven, of his nine summer signings to date. None of them let him down. The more familiar faces also eased comfortably into a better class of company, none more so than the other Jones, at both ends of the field.

Watford, under new management, weren’t the strongest opposition, but they were a reasonable proxy for most of the division, sharper in defence and more threatening going forward than almost all the sides Charlton have faced during their long exile in League One.

They kindly provided a pantomime villain in forward Kwadwo Baah, who was eventually withdrawn just after the hour, as well as the return of former Charlton loanee James Abankwah. The then 19-year-old Udinese player’s debut at right back at Stevenage two years earlier had looked exceptionally premature. Now he seems a solid performer.

But this afternoon was all about the Addicks. The game began to answer some of the questions that had inevitably lingered through pre-season, and the early conclusions were pretty positive. A goalless draw would not have been a disaster and neither would it have been received as such.

The mood throughout was more than new season optimism. There was genuine excitement in the crowd beforehand, which reflected confidence in the team and manager after last season’s storming final stages. Nothing that happened even began to dent it.

Former boss Chris Powell’s introduction on the pitch 15 minutes before kick-off just baked in the good feeling. The warmth he generates in SE7 could melt a glacier at any time, but here it was just a happy addition to a climate of joyful anticipation.

Even the pre-match applause to remember former defender Jorge Costa, U10s player Ethan Ade-Oduwale and the tragic death, 25 years ago, of youth player Pierre Bolangi fed into the sense of a community coming together, showing proper respect to its own.

If there was a shadow it was the significant number of empty seats in the home stands - 5,000-plus even on the club’s figures. It was still a large crowd but, once the sold-out Watford contingent had been deducted, hardly sensational. The suspicion must be that the board has overegged the matchday pricing, but if so that is a lesson which will keep on coming.

The denouement didn’t feel so much a plot twist as a natural conclusion. The late introduction of the bustling Tanto Olaofe and Knibbs, as well as the return of Miles Leaburn, had already whetted the appetite for the many more occasions that are yet to come.

Ex-Luton boss Jones, incandescent and bouncing like a rubber ball along the touchline when first Edwards and Olaofe were denied penalties, but later admitting that the Hornets could have had one too, topped it off by vigorously thanking the visiting supporters for their attendance at the final whistle. It was all a bit crackers, but who cares? His substitution had won the game.

It would have seemed odd, in 2007, after 12 top flight seasons in the preceding two decades, to be thrilled about the prospect of Championship football, but to a hungry man a hunk of bread and jam might feel like a feast. And this was so much better than that. 

Perhaps it wasn't a grand chocolate gateux, but it felt like a very decent strawberry and cream sponge. And it was devoured with enthusiasm.

We were all kids again doing what we did again, as the PA system thoughtfully reminded us while the players and fans celebrated. It won’t always be like this, but you feel there may be other, even better, days - as well as cakes - to come.