Action For Camara

Long term injury victim Titi Camara made a return to competitive football on Tuesday night as West Ham United's reserve team slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Charlton Athletic.

Roger Cross handed the Guinean striker a 25-minute run-out in the second half but, while the former Livepool star showed some neat touches, he is clearly some way off the desired level of fitness to stake a claim for a first team place.

A 65th minute substitute for Svetoslav Todorov, Camara joined veteran Steve Potts as the only Hammers player over the age of 23, with Cross forced to field a young side just 24 hours before the first team clash with Chelsea.

With the exception of senior players John Salako and Clive Mendonca, Charlton also named a relatively inexperienced line-up and were simply more fortunate on the night as both sides flattered to deceive in front of a decent sized crowd at Dagenham & Redbridge's Victoria Road ground.

The only goal of the game arrived in the 30th minute, when defender Anwar Uddin was harshly adjudged to have fouled an opponent in the penalty area, despite clearly getting his foot to the ball first just yards from the referee's assistant.

Charlton striker Charlie McDonald tucked away the resulting spot-kick but that was as exciting as it got. Todorov went close just before the break while Grant McCann saw a fierce effort fly wide of the target.

The second half saw the hosts enjoy more control and plenty of possession that, frustratingly, they again failed to turn into goalscoring chances and the Addicks held out to secure all three points.

Roger Cross admitted afterwards: "It wasn't a good performance tonight. It was completely different to how we've been playing tonight and I was disappointed.

"The first half wasn't very good for both teams but we did get a lot more of the ball in the second half and I thought we were better. We lacked that cutting edge though and only created a couple of chances.

"I was disappointed with the penalty for two reasons. Firstly because Anwar didn't need to lunge in anyway on the far side of the box but, secondly, he did win the ball and I was disappointed to see the linesman give it."

Commenting on the return of Camara, Roger added: "Titi has been out for a long time and has worked reasonably hard to get back to fitness. Hopefully he will keep fit and we will see more of him."

Team: B.McMahon, Johnson, Potts, Uddin, Soma, Newton, Ferrante, McCann, Britton (Clark 74), Todorov (Camara 65), Riza.