Charlton 0 - 0 Blackpool

Following on from a great game on Tuesday night where I thought we played the best football I've seen from us this season we followed it up with our first clean sheet in the league this season.

Sadly that is probably the only real positive to take from the game. We looked strong at the back but Blackpool didn't look very good going forward so I'm not sure that we can use this as confirmation that the defense is 'rock solid' just yet.

In fact I would suggest that it was a game of two strong defenses, and with the way the two teams played it was going to take a mistake at the back and as neither side looked like making one we could have still been playing now and it would still be 0-0.

However, you can only beat (or not concede against) what you have in front of you, and Blackpool are still 6th in the division, and despite having the 12th best scoring record, they have the 3rd tightest defense, so a 0-0 was, by no means, a poor result.

I do have some reservations as to whether Blackpool will finish in the top 6, but I suspect that will depend, a lot, on Tom Ince who is clearly talented, but failed to achieve much on Saturday. I thought Rhoys Wiggins had him well covered and he also seems to have a swagger about him that was not justified based on that performance. If he moves away from his Dad (and his white jacket and white trainers) in January I can see this side struggling to be anywhere near the playoffs come May. Having said that I can't see us being anywhere near them either so I guess I should keep my thoughts on that subject to myself.

Overall I thought it was a credible performance. Neither of the strikers showed much that was encouraging, but in their defense they didn't have many Chances. I thought the midfield was set up to provide more protection to the back four - as I thought it was on Tuesday. That clearly worked as we only conceded one goal in the two games but it relies heavily on Harriott, who I thought struggled a little on Tuesday but looked completely out of sorts on Saturday.

I suspect that we don't have a natural candidate for the tip of the diamond and it made sense to give Harriott a go at it, but I'm inclined to suggest that it hasn't worked. he is still young but he looks like he is struggling to have the same impact from the start of the season as he had coming into a side towards the end of one. I have a lot of faith in his ability and don't doubt that he will make a significant contribution this season, and hopefully for a few to follow, but I think he is finding a little harder with the attention that he is getting from the opposition just now.

Jordan Cousins, on the other hand seems to look the real deal. Clearly this is his first season so we will need to wait until he's played 20 or 30 games before we make firm decisions, but from what I've seen of him there is plenty of justification for the plaudits that he has received on his way through the youth and reserve set up towards the first team.

I said before kickoff that I would have been more than happy with a draw on Tuesday and would have taken two points from the two fixtures in the week. I wouldn't have taken a draw before kick off on Saturday, but in the end I was happy with a point and a clean sheet.

We now have a couple of weeks to get Kermorgant back fit and with the rest of the side starting to gel again I am confident that we will be able to put a little space between us and the stragglers at the bottom.

Up the Addicks!