Charlton Athletic 3 Stevenage 1 – Carabao Cup player ratings.

After the excitement of Blackpool and Rotherham, this one fell far short of expectations.

Seven changes meant that players were coming in to prove why they deserved to start on Saturday, or so the theory went. To be fair, the second half was far superior, but did any of the newcomers contribute sufficiently?  Here’s how I saw the game in The Valley.

Carabao Cup player ratings

Charlton Athletic (2) 3 Stevenage (0) 1

Taye Ashby-Hammond – 5

One mental lapse occurred just before the goal, when he let it bounce, lost the bounce, headed it twice, and then appeared to dive over the ball for the second.

However, there weren’t many other things to do. I couldn’t do much with the third, and the first was due to an outfield error.

Dan Butler – 6

Skipper for the night and while he didn’t hit the heights of his previous two outings, it was steady enough. Taken off after an hour to save himself for Saturday.

Dan Sweeney – 5

One pass to Jovan Malcolm, which was far too far away from the newcomer, was met with a withering stare and a turn away in disgust from the centre-back. It required him to be more of a leader, particularly in the first half.

Dan Phillips – 4

Maybe it was the head injury in the second minute, or the fact that the bandage he was wearing covered his eyes, but he smelt bad. Couldn’t pass, control the ball, or tackle. So unlike him. Did improve, but Jordan Houghton can only get a 4 against Blackpool.

Dan Kemp – 6

One lovely ball was thrown across that Malcolm did not catch and buzzed around without ever appearing to be a threat.

Lewis Freestone – 6.5

I thought he improved when he moved to left-back, not that he was terrible at centre-half. Should have done better in the third, but scored a good goal and provided some decent crosses to keep the pressure up.

Jasper Pattenden – 5.5

Nice ball in for the consolation and had some good moments in what appears to be a standard, hard-working performance from him. Not particularly convincing in defence, but young speedsters were given free reign to charge through the Stevenage midfield and directly at him.

Harvey White – 6

Just average, and while that may sound bad, in this team’s performance, it should not be interpreted that way. Every year, we see progress from him, and we will see it again this season.

Has already played better this season, but when your midfield partner is having a meltdown, he can provide a steadying influence.

Chem Campbell – 5

Didn’t appear at ease on the right; one moment when he appeared to have just lashed a shot with his right was lost as he attempted to shift his body position and get it on his left. That was just one example of how he didn’t live up to his previous two games.

Jovan Malcolm – 6

Thrown in at the deep end, the new man had one glorious opportunity but failed to react in time. That will come, you hope, once he catches up with Boro and League One. However, there was one run in the second half that should inspire, and there were a few odd moments in the first half when he demonstrated willingness. I’ll accept this showing.

Phoenix Patterson – 7

He had moments in each half when he got the ball and ran at his opponent. He’ll scare anyone when he does that, and while his crossing wasn’t great in the first half, it improved after the break, as did the rest of the team.

Subs – Jamie Reid, Charlie Goode, Jordan Houghton, Matty Taylor, Ryan Doherty

Check out the names, particularly the first three. When they are involved, the quality of the work will naturally improve.

Lifted the rest of the team, and while they were always at the forefront of the increased momentum, their presence had an impact on the remaining starting lineup.

Stevenage man of the match

Phoenix Patterson gets it. Like everyone else, he was not at his best in the first half, particularly defensively. There is still more to learn there.

However, he is currently a rare breed, a winger who wants to challenge people, and if you get that right, people are excited. In the second half, he exited people.

Charlton three stars

Ibrahim Fullah, Miles Leaburn, and Alex Mitchell. The first had speed to burn, whereas the second is a handful.

The final was a no-nonsense centre-back who, rather than messing around in the back, thumped a loose ball high into the top tier of the stand where the press was seated. That’s always a winner in my book.

Comet opinion

I am disappointed. I wanted a good cup run in this, and while Charlton had some good players on the pitch, I felt they were there for the taking, as evidenced by how the second half played out.

And I’ve been scratching my head, and while I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen players brought into a team en masse perform well enough to keep their spot, I keep expecting it to happen someday. And when I looked at this team, I thought they were the most capable of anyone.

There are positives. Many of those who came in showed flashes of things that will be very useful as the season progresses. But they have to take the lessons from this and learn from them.

Learn from your mistakes and improve through experience. As long as this experience is viewed in that light, you can swallow it and move on.

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