Playoff final spot up for grabs as Charlton keep Wycombe at arm's length

The Guardian

11-05-2025

Wycombe and Charlton could not be separated as they played out a goalless draw in the first leg of their League One playoff semi-final at Adams Park.
Despite Mike Dodds's Wycombe being the out-of-form side out of all of the teams involved in the playoffs, they were superb in the opening 45 minutes.
Jack Grimmer and Fred Onyedinma worked brilliantly down the right-hand side to cause Charlton's back-line numerous problems, and they almost took the lead inside the opening five minutes.
Grimmer's ball found Cameron Humphreys, who picked out striker Dan Udoh. He took a touch and fizzed a shot at goal from the edge of the box but goalkeeper Will Mannion managed to parry the ball to safety.
From the resulting corner, Sonny Bradley's header went wide. It was a tight and cagey affair as Charlton struggled to break down a stubborn defence.
Wanderers looked alert, dangerous and a completely different side from the one on the end of a 4-0 thumping by the south east London side 20 days earlier.
One bone of contention in the first half was that Charlton boss Nathan Jones and his side believed Wycombe forward Richard Kone should have been shown a straight red card.
Mat Sadler praised Walsall's "fighting performance" after they secured a 2-0 win at Chesterfield in the first leg of their League Two playoff semi-final. Both goals came in the first half, with Taylor Allen scoring from the spot and Alfie Chang doubling the advantage.Sadler, the head coach, said: "I thought we played well. I thought we started a little bit edgily and then grew into the game."Listen, we've got a young team and these experiences that we're going through together, they're invaluable for everyone. So that was another experience today, a sell-out crowd, everyone right on top of the game."We knew we were going to have that period of settling and when we did that, I thought we started to really get into the game and tried to exploit some of the areas that we wanted to. That was pleasing."There were some really good performances so I have to be pleased with that, of course. I've got an unbelievable group and I've had that all season. I've had it in every single game. We never give up, we never feel sorry for ourselves.
"I've said it before, I'll say it again, we're fighters, we're not victims to anything and we'll keep fighting. I thought that was a fighting performance from us and we had to do it in loads of different ways."The Chesterfield manager, Paul Cook, conceded that Walsall are now favourites to go through to the final but insists it is not a foregone conclusion."Walsall are in the ascendancy, without a shadow of a doubt," Cook said. "They've come here and they've done a really good job in the game."We huffed and we puffed and there were moments where we could have got back into it. It just didn't happen for us and the crowd were brilliant, absolutely. I've loved every minute of the last few days and the atmosphere around the town and what it means to people."Unfortunately for us, our achilles heel of giving poor goals away at home strikes again and all of a sudden the crowd were just a little bit subdued and rightly so. I don't know how many attempts Walsall had, probably not many, but that's football."The game is still alive and there's so much to play for. The game was never going to be decided today. There's still so much more football left in this game."
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The Ivorian was chasing down Kayne Ramsay but slipped, catching the full-back on the calf.
The referee, Farai Hallam, opted to give Kone a yellow card, but replays suggested the tackle was dangerous and that the 21-year-old was fortunate to stay on the pitch.
Moments later, Kone was involved in a pushing match with Macaulay Gillesphey which led to a small melee between both sets of players.
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After the coming together, Wycombe's Xavier Simons and Charlton captain Greg Docherty were booked for their part.
The second half was similar to the first as both sides put bodies on the line. Onyedinma and Adam Reach went close for Wycombe, while Tyreece Campbell saw a shot blocked by Bradley.
Will Norris was called into action after 69 minutes when he blocked Matty Godden's stinging effort, before he once again denied the former Coventry man in the closing stages.
A long ball over the top found Godden, who fired a volley towards goal after brilliantly controlling it on his chest. Norris pushed it away, and from the resulting corner he was there to claw away Docherty's close-range effort.