Watford are a club in crisis. Charlton were going to increase their woes on a day when there was talk of protests from Hornets supporters with the serious hump.
That was the pre-match talk. It sounded good. It sounded really good.
But a whole lot of things didn’t happen.
If there were protest plans - I’m thinking in particular the plea for Watford fans not to be in their seats before kick off as a show of anger towards owner Gino Pozzo - it didn’t appear to happen.
More pertinently, Watford were not soft touches. And equally pertinently, a Charlton side that came into the match without a victory in seven matches failed to do their job.
They did not ask enough early attacking questions - aside from an unmarked Miles Leaburn heading over in the ninth minute - to really put their opponents on the back foot when tension was high and confidence potentially brittle.
Charlton’s third loss of the season saw them drop to 17th in the table. They are three points off Wolves, in seventh, and six points off the relegation zone. But after an eight-game run without a victory (five points from 24), there will be concerns of inexorably being sucked into a survival fight.
