Home   >   A View from the Championship - Conor de Smith   >   Charlton 3-1 Watford: Match Report

Charlton 3-1 Watford: Match Report

By on April 30, 2014

A brace from Callum Harriott coupled with a goal from Johnnie Jackson gave Charlton a 3-1 win over Watford to secure Championship football for next season.

Harriott opened the scoring 22 minutes in at the Valley when the winger’s shot from outside of the area was just out of reach for Jonathan Bond. A spectacular leveler from Troy Deeney gave the visitors hope but a goal from the Addicks captain alongside Harriott’s second of the game sealed Charlton all three points.

The game was stop and start in the opening exchanges due to injuries. Davide Faraoni went off for Watford after a quarter-of-an-hour when he went down after a strong challenge, before Belkalem was booked for catching a Charlton man in the face which caused the attacker to stay down for a minute or so. Even one of the ball boys broke his arm.

One of the few bright sparks was Harriott – the 20-year-old has represented England at youth level and perhaps showed why on Tuesday evening. His tricky runs gave Watford defenders a tough time and managed to get passed them on a number of occasions. With a couple of shots at Bond, who was standing in for an injured Almunia, he tested the goalkeeper, who still failed to stop the opener. Dropping his shoulder to get a yard on Lloyd Doyley the number 11 unleashed a shot that just crept under the Watford keeper.

Charlton had won one in the last ten meetings with the Hornets and their lead was taken away in the second-half. A long ball from Gabriele Angella was flicked up over the defender first time by Troy Deeney and was volleyed home over Hamer, who didn’t even bother to dive.

A fabulous equalizer might have sent Watford on their way, and they were close to grabbing a winner when Deeney, who now has 24 goals this campaign, almost took a through ball into his stride. Just minutes later, though, Jose Riga’s men were back in front when Johnnie Jackson did what Deeney couldn’t. A cross came in and the oncoming captain swiped at the ball, and despite the fact that the 31-year-old made poor contact, it luckily fell right to him, leaving him with little to do to slot it into the back of the net. Charlton were back on top.

And with just 20 minutes remaining another cross undid the shaky Hornet’s defense. Lawrie Wilson’s ball went all the way to Harriot who struck the ball beautifully into the bottom right-hand corner. This sent the bench into delirium as they must have known that the victory was all but complete. It was even ensured further as the on-loan Albert Riera was sent off for a second offense when he was judged to have his boot too high when he went to win the ball. The Galatasaray man will now miss what was likely to be his last game for Watford when Sannino’s side face Huddersfield on Saturday.

About Conor de Smith

Aspiring sports journalist. Editor for VAVEL and writer for Football Every Day.