Charlton Athletic 1 v Wycombe Wanderers 0 - EFL League 1 - Play Off Semi Final - 2nd Leg
Aggregate Score: Addicks 1 v Chairboys 0
Thursday 15th May 2025 - EFL League 1 - Play-Off Semi-Final - 2nd Leg - Charlton Athletic (0) 1 (Matty Godden 81) v. Wycombe Wanderers (0) 0. Attendance: 25,722 inc. 1,600 away fans
Charlton Athletic: Mannion, Ramsay, Jones, Gillesphey; Small (Aneke 70), Gilbert (Anderson 84), Coventry, Docherty (c), Edwards; Godden, Campbell (Watson 89). Unused subs - Maynard-Brewer, Mitchell, Kanu, Mbick
Wycombe Wanderers: Ravizzoli, Grimmer (c), Simons (Sadlier 87), Leahy, Udoh, McCleary (Westergaard 87), Humphreys, Kone (Onyedinma 73), Bradley, Taylor, Reach (Kodua 87). Unused subs - George, Bakinson, Low
In the other League 1 Play-Off Semi-Final, Leyton Orient beat Stockport County on penalties last night, in front of a crowd of 10,592 at Edgeley Park, after drawing 1-1 (3-3 on aggregate). Meaning that the Addicks and Chairboys knew who the winner of tonight's game would be facing at Wembley in the ‘winner takes all’ final on Sunday March 25th (1pm).
It was great to have a catch up with my good friend Paul in the Barrel Vault pub at St. Pancras, on the way into London. After reluctantly having to leave the chilled surrounds of possibly the cheapest bar in the whole city, because time was moving on, I found the locality to be awash with one big party vibe, between London Bridge and the Valley.
Even as my Slade Green bound (via Charlton) train trundled past that rust bucket of a football ground, that spoils the view, like an ugly escarpment on the already bleak and barren landscape of South Bermondsey, the ambience remained upbeat and positive. And an aura of belief and confidence permeated every nook and cranny, as I walked down Floyd Road towards the ground chatting to that really nice man who currently manages AFC Wimbledon.
As the old saying goes: ‘Build it and they shall come’. And the team, along with it's winning mentality, that Nathan Jones and his sidekicks have constructed, has certainly caught the public’s imagination and undivided attention across the Addicks sizeable catchment area.
Charlton have climbed from eighteenth in the League 1 table, right up to the top-four and won a place in a promotion play-off final, in the space of just twelve-months, now that's progress, regardless of what the outcome is against the O’s. Both finalists have been enjoying a quite remarkable run of form of late. And both have shrewd and savvy managers at the helm too. Nathan Jones v Richie Wellens will be quite an absorbing contest on the touchline, all by itself
Wycombe’s back-up keeper, Franco Ravizzoli, was drafted into the visitors side tonight, because Will Norris, who had done so much in the first-leg to preserve the Chairboys clean sheet, was ruled out through injury. The second-string goalkeeper looked nervy and on edge, as he struggled to cope with a low-shot from Greg Docherty early on. But he just about managed to ride his luck.
The game was just as ‘competitive’ and contained to the middle-third of the pitch, as Sunday’s battle, sans some if the excesses and heated flashpoints that punctuated that goalless slugging match. That could’ve been because the weekend’s pantomime baddie: Richard Kone was, in the main, kept quiet in tonight by Macaulay Gillesphey, managing just the one, scuffed and ineffective shot on goal, before being substituted with fifteen minutes remaining. The omens were all stacking up for the hosts, amidst a cacaphony of noise, urging the Addicks to find a breakthrough, inside a partisan, atmospheric and sold-out Valley.
Lloyd Jones really should have scored during the first half, when he rose to meet a Matty Godden cross, but the ball glanced off of his and wide of the upright from just a few feet away from Ravizzol’s goal, with the Chairboys keeper all at sea. As the second-half got under way, Alex Gilbert tested Wycombe’s keeper from close range, but the Argentinian stopper was equal to the challenge.
Something had to give, with extra-time and possibly even penalties appearing over the horizon. And it looked as though Thierry Small was about to break the deadlock, when he stormed into the visitors area from out on the right, but fizzed his curling shot just wide of the far-post. With just ten minutes remaining, Garath McCleary, on the occasion of his 38th birthday, had a fierce shot blocked by Kayne Ramsey, who recovered quickly enough to get in the way of Xavier Simons’ follow-up shot, after he’d latched onto the loose-ball.
Moments after Ramsay’s critical intervention, play switched from one end of the pitch to the other. Gillesphey striding forward on the left, hoisted a long searching ball into the Wycombe goalmouth, Jones nicked it away from the hesitant Ravizzoli and Godden was on hand to scoop the ball into an empty net, to score the first, last and only goal of this two-legged tie; which finally arrived after 171 minutes of tightly-contested attritional football.
Charlton saw out the game, without too much fuss, from thereon in. Now they had got hold of a lead there was no way that they were going to let it out of their grasp. As a defence as formidable as the nearby Thames Barrier, slammed shut. The ugliness of this win, sans many (if any) thrills, spills and aesthetics mattered not to the majority of people inside the stadium. This had been a massive occasion for everyone with the best interests of Charlton Athletic at heart. And, when the going had got tough… well, y’know! 😉 Goodnight from the Happy Valley.
All the trains to SE7 and back ran on time; the WiFi on LNER worked like a dream, affording me with the opportunity to write all of this gubbins up before midnight… and everything was well with the world. Even the motorway closure on the last 24 mile stretch of my journey home from where I’d left my car, didn't faze me unduly. Neither did the circuitous detour I had to undertake through curious places that I’d never even heard of before. It's all part of the whole character building experience innit!? And none of us would have it any other way.