AJOSE HAS ADDICKS IN GOOD NICK
LEE Bowyer believes Charlton’s victory at Portsmouth has provided concrete evidence that his side will be playing in the Championship next year if they can seal a play-off spot.
On paper, Nicky Ajose’s firsthalf goal was the only difference at Fratton Park between two teams with identical ambitions.
But Portsmouth must now win their final two games and their promotion rivals lose some key points to finish inside the top six.
Bowyer, however, showed total faith in his fifth-placed side when he said: “It is their togetherness and team spirit that gives us an edge over other sides.
“We dominated the first half and I was disappointed we didn’t score more goals. But when Portsmouth came back at us in the second half, the fight that we showed was very, very pleasing.
“And if we get into the play-offs there is not any team that will beat us over two legs because I totally believe in my players.”
Charlton certainly deserved the lead they took back into the dressing room at half-time, having dominated the opening period and produced seven shots on the goal.
However, for the first 21 minutes neither side had managed a shot between them and the game was 31 minutes old before Gareth Evans became the first Pompey player to actually get a touch of the ball inside the visitors’ penalty area.
Soon after, Jamal Lowe did hit a 25-yard shot low and wide and later Ben Amos did well to react to a close-range deflected header from Matt Clarke.
Yet neither of those efforts compared with the pressure that Charlton constantly created through the raiding work of Tariqe Fosu on their left wing.
And they went ahead in the 40th minute when Portsmouth’s central defenders failed to match the sterling work of Patrick Bauer at the other end of the pitch when trying to deal with a long clearance from Amos.
A misjudged header left Ajose free on goal and he carefully steered his shot wide of the diving Luke McGee.
Pompey boss Kenny Jackett had to replace injured defenders Jack Whatmough and Nathan Thompson at half-time and their replacements at least restricted Charlton’s chances somewhat. But Pompey failed to equalise because top scorer Brett Pitman missed a close-range volley and Amos pulled off smart saves from a deflected Pitman free-kick and a sharp Connor Ronan shot. But it was the bigger picture of the play-offs which left Jackett most disappointed: “We needed to win the game to pull clear of others into the fifth or sixth spot. “But the injuries two defenders suffered in the first half had a big impact and Charlton played a really controlled game.”