'A night to forget in the university city'

My heart sank when the Charlton Athletic team line-up dropped for Tuesday's Carabao Cup second-round game against Cambridge United.

Nathan Jones made 11 changes from the narrow 1–0 Championship defeat by Leicester City at the weekend.

The most alarming aspect was the defence - two under-21s, including Oliver Hobden making his professional debut. The only recent regular was Macaulay Gillesphey.

Across midfield and attack we had four new signings - Joe Rankin-Costello, Harvey Knibbs, Tanto Olaofe, and Charlie Kelman - so that looked reasonably strong on paper. But the real eye-opener? Eight outfield academy players on the bench, two of whom had already played earlier in the day in the U21s' 1–1 draw with Barnsley at The Valley.

My original prediction was 3–1 to Charlton. But when I saw that defence, I changed it to 4–3 in our favour. I was right about the three.

It turned into a night to forget in the university city.

We were poor - resorting to hopeful long balls, short on energy, and seemingly lacking interest in what's fast becoming a devalued competition (try telling that to Grimsby Town supporters, though).

All three goals were soft. The first came from a slick Cambridge move delivered like a knife cutting through ambient butter.

The one real spark was Ibrahim Fullah, who gave us a glimmer of hope by pulling it back to 2–1 just before the break. That goal made him our embryonic top scorer = two goals to his name and counting.

That felt like the time to call in the cavalry - a few seasoned players from the bench to try and turn it around.

But that was clearly not in Jones' plans. He wanted his main charges tucked up in bed, ready for the rigours of facing QPR in the Championship.

Fair play. I'd bite your hand off for 50 points in the league and two early cup exits right now. But the fact is, I was very irritated with the final 3–1 defeat.