Minutes Of Madness – Charlton 2, Watford 2

Watford put what looks to be the final nail in Charlton's automatic promotion coffin yesterday as the Addicks managed to squander a two goal lead in as many minutes.

Charlton started the match well and were a cut above Watford for most of the first half. Varney came close in the third minute with a dipping volley, and had another chance with a close range header minutes later.

It was Ambrose who broke the deadlock though, who turned in Zheng Zhi's cross from close range for a deserved opener.

Both sides traded efforts for the next 20 minutes, Watford guilty of screwing some good opportunities wide. It was Charlton who added to their tally though, this time as a result of the advancing Greg Halford.

Halford and Sam had been trading passes down the right flank all game, and a speculative cross from the defender was clumsly turned into his own net by Shittu.

The home side were 2 up, and Watford were on the ropes. Despite the pedigree of both sides coming into the game, Charlton seemed to have the better of the physical battle. Varney in particular was winning plenty of headers and putting in tackles, and there always seemed to be an Addick in the right place.

Watford were far from beaten though, and as McAnuff''s shot came back off the post moments before half-time, Boothroyd was readying the changes for the second half.

And how things changed. Watford were a different team after the break – gone was the poor long-ball football that has typified their season so far, and the physical side of their game returned.

As we've seen all too often at The Valley, a two-goal margin is never enough, and a fired-up Watford side clearly wanted it more as the home side backed off too much, and it took only 10 minutes for parity to be restored.

The first came as substitute O'Toole stole in behind the Addicks defence, and slotted past Weaver. There were cries of offside from the North Stand, but I'll have to reserve judgment seeing as nobody could see where O'Toole came from in the first place.

As so often happens after a goal, Watford got another within a minute when Shittu headed in from a corner. The home defence had gone completely to sleep at 2 key occasions, and who knows what the outcome may be on our season as a result.

The match petered out as a contest after this, as Watford failed to keep the initiative and a shell-shocked Charlton couldn't find a way back in. It was a scrappy affair for the last half-hour, and was constantly stopped by some extremely fussy refereeing which only achieved to wind up the home crowd.

The only bright spark for the last 20 was the introduction of Lee Cook, much to the derision of the Watford support. I've never seen much of him, but on this evidence he's an extremely skilful, quick-footed player who looks capable of putting in a telling cross. In comparison with another lethargic cameo from Thomas, I could see Cook being a player to get us a few goals during the run-in.

The full-time whistle was greeted with much abuse for the match officials, but after calming down from the occasion you simply can't blame results like this on referees – we had a 2 goal cushion and blew it.

We can definitely forget about automatic promotion now – the reality is that the teams below us are closer than Watford, so our concern has to be cementing a play-off place.

We could never be certain of an automatic spot this season, but anything less than a play-off place now would be a disaster.