What the quality Sunday papers say...

Last updated : 06 November 2005 By Charlton mad
THE SUNDAY TIMES
Jonathan Northcroft at Ewood Park

Luke Young, Darren Bent and Danny Murphy were all disappointments, although they were not helped by the general mediocrity of Charlton Athletic.

Given that Charlton arrived with the only perfect away record in the League, this was quite a result. Controlling the match for all but a brief stretch, Blackburn’s victory was punctuated by a goal in the final seconds. From Shefki Kuqi’s flick-on, Bellamy controlled and expertly drove a shot past Stephan Andersen.

Charlton were shredded within 19 minutes. After just two, Brett Emerton had buried the ball in the top corner of Charlton’s net. Hermann Hreidarsson tried to control Michael Gray’s centre on the chest and deflected the ball to Emerton, who dropped a shoulder, went outside Jonathan Spector and struck a curling effort high past Andersen.

Charlton like to be the ones playing on the counter-attack and were thrown by opponents so effective at doing the same. Chris Perry deflected another hefty Emerton drive for a corner and Tugay whistled a shot close.

Darren Ambrose’s over-eagerness made him strive to keep the ball when he was so unbalanced that he had no hope of doing anything with it. It was merely picked up by Tugay, who fed Neill. His cross looped into the box off Bryan Hughes’s head. Dickov might have been offside when he stole beyond Perry to place a header past Andersen but Charlton’s indignation was tempered when Phil Dowd, the referee, denied Blackburn a penalty when Hreidarsson handled.

Murphy looked disconsolate when he was substituted after making little impact and Bent was peripheral. He has the consolation of already being in the Under-21 squad but his hope of promotion, in event of injuries, to the full England ranks for the Argentina match must have faded. Charlton had only one spell, before half-time, when they came to terms with Blackburn. Hughes scored from close range under pressure from Brad Friedel after Ambrose flicked on Bent’s cross, but Pedersen restored Blackburn’s comfort level when he arrived late to stroke Reid’s cross in off Young’s shins.