Burton stunned promotion-chasing Charlton at the Pirelli Stadium to beat them 4-2 on Tuesday night. The hosts began the night rock bottom of League One but defied all odds to inflict Charlton’s first loss in eight games.
Although this is only the third defeat for Charlton Athletic, they missed out on closing the gap to the top two. The hosts meanwhile got their second win of the season and sit in 22nd place and three points below safety.
Quick start
The Brewers got off to the perfect start as in the ninth minute Lucas Akins won the ball and drove to the Addicks defence. ‘Keeper Ben Amos initially saved his first effort however Akins was quick to react and put the home team 1-0 up.
Six minutes later Charlton tried to respond as Omar Bogle had a shot that was deflected, and Irish ‘keeper Kieran O’Hara made a fine save and kept the hosts in the lead.
In the 39th minute Burton doubled their lead as Ryan Edwards pressured Amos to clear the ball. His poor clearance fell to Joe Powell who chipped the ball over Amos to grab his second goal of the season.
Hope at the break
Just three minutes before the break, Charlton halved the deficit as Paul Smyth bundled the ball over the line after a brief goal-line scramble.
Burton started the second half like the first and didn’t let the Addicks’ strike before half time affect them. After Amos made a good save, the Charlton defence struggled to clear and Sam Hughes was on hand to restore the hosts’ two-goal cushion.
Chuks Aneke, who was bought on to salvage Charlton’s unbeaten run on Saturday, dragged Charlton back into it as he was quickest to react in the penalty box and scored a sensational volley.
But the visitors, who came into the match boasting the best defence in the league were breached again as Charles Vernam capped an excellent performance with his first goal for the Brewers as he scored a rebound from his own initial shot and remained cool to loop the ball over the oncoming Amos.
“That will never be acceptable”
Speaking on the club website, Charlton manager Lee Bowyer expressed his frustrations with yesterday’s performance and added, “It was poor from start to finish. Too many people just going through the motions. No matter where teams are in the division, you can’t give them a two-goal head start and the two goals we gave away were just errors, individual errors. I’ve never seen anything like it”. Bowyer also stated that despite being unbeaten in eight he stated, “that isn’t acceptable, that will never be acceptable”.
The Addicks face promotion rivals Ipswich on Saturday, whilst Burton look to have another say in the promotion race as they travel to Sunderland.
“Charlton Athletic” by Ewan-M is licensed under CC BY-SA
