Charlton loss ' bad day at the office'

For Blackburn Rovers – you can file this match under the 'bad day at the office' or 'not at the races' column. Straight away it's about the reaction to it.

For whatever reason, these matches happen in the Championship and often without warning.

Rovers might not have the number of wins they'd like on the board so far, but they've been in every game.

The opening day at West Brom might not have been particularly great, but with the score at one-nil, there was always a chance of getting back into it.

In general, football fans don't spare a thought for the predicament of other teams, but I'd imagine a fair few were glad it wasn't their team on the end of the EFL verdict this week to replay a game against Ipswich.

A goal to the good, a one player advantage and somewhere like 16 minutes to hold out (give or take a couple of minutes of stoppage time). The talk pre-match was about the determination to show that frustration at The Valley.

That looked highly unlikely to happen for large parts of the game.

Credit goes to Charlton Athletic. They played well; they have an excellent record on home soil. They won individual battles all over the pitch; they looked sharper and quicker and had far more invention in their play. A look at the BBC stats tells us that they had almost three times more touches in the opposition penalty area than Rovers did.

The biggest concern watching from high in the stand was that in order to try and score a goal, bodies were needed forward. They looked too deep all afternoon.

Distances looked out, the midfield pretty much camped in, and when they did get in the opposition's final third – the creativity on the day just didn't match their opponents. Thomas Kaminski made two saves in the Addicks goal; he'll certainly have busier days.

Rovers boss Valerien Ismael told me after the game: "It's been a tough week."

He was adamant that his team should have been awarded a penalty with the score at 1-0.

He added: "I think it's terrible the referee didn't see that [for handball by Lloyd Jones], because it can be a game-changer.

"What's embarrassing is that our captain is allowed to speak to the referee and he has winked at him and laughed at him. This is unacceptable. He made a mistake, but at least treat our player properly and not laugh at our players."

Referee Anthony Backhouse or the governing body is highly unlikely to make any sort of response to that.

Granted, had a penalty been awarded and subsequently converted, then naturally it would have put a different complexion on the game.

But as a contest, this was Charlton's day. They were the better side and more than deserved maximum points.

Two home games to come this week and potentially a rearranged one around the corner too for Rovers; they'll see a fair amount of Ewood Park this month.

Three points on Tuesday against Swansea will quickly draw a line through this one.