Charlton went 9th in the Championship after their 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday at The Valley this afternoon in front of a crowd of 23.009.
Goals from Sonny Carey and defender Reece Burke had the
Addicks in control by half-time and even though Wednesday rallied as Jamal
Lowe's opportunist goal got them back in the game, they had goalkeeper Ethan
Horvath sent-off in added time as they fell to another defeat.
Charlton came out quickly and Max Lowe made a vital block on an early Burke strike.
Wednesday's best chance of the opening 45 minutes came in
the 11th minute but Jamal Lowe could only head the ball straight at Addicks
goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski from very close range.
Charlton opened the scoring in the 17th minute with Carey
collecting his third goal of the campaign. The summer signing (free transfer)
from Blackpool was initially denied by Horvath but followed up to lift a cool
finish into the top right of the net.
The visitors' defence regularly looked uncomfortable as the
Addicks pressed aggressively and it needed a last-second block by Gabriel
Otegbayo to frustrate Charlie Kelman inside the penalty area. Carey was proving
to be an uncontainable influence and his wicked cross was begging for a
finishing touch that never came in the 32nd minute.
Charlton extended their lead in first-half stoppage time.
James Bree's free-kick was headed in at the near post by centre-back Burke, his
first goal since joining from Luton in July.
Barry Bannan was out of sorts for the visitors, summed up by
the Scottish charm merchant over hitting
a couple of routine crossfield passes out of play to the delight of the
Addickted.
Jamal Lowe made amends for smashing wildly over from the
left-hand side of the box when he reacted quickest to convert after substitute
Sean Fusire's shot came back off the right post in the 69th minute.
Keeper Horvath was shown a straight red card by referee Tom
Reeves for wiping out Isaac Olaofe as the pair competed for a ball just outside
the Owls' penalty area late on.
Nathan Jones, who has lost just three matches as Charlton manager, told BBC Radio London: '"I'm delighted that we won because you come out of these international breaks and never know what you're going to get. People have had two weeks off, you've had internationals who have travelled around the world, you never know.
"First half we were good. We scored two goals and with
a little bit more killer instinct we'd have scored more. Charlie [Kelman] has
had two situations where he could score, [James] Bree has put in some wonderful
balls that, again, we could score from - two was the least we should have had.
"We warned [our players] at half-time because we've
watched them [Wednesday] a number of times and they've been 2-0 down twice and
come back to 2-2, and they should have won the Wrexham 3-2 or 4-2 so we knew
there was a sting in the tail if we didn't do what we did.
"We almost had that but we saw the game out really well
and came strong late on."
Mark Kinsella received a great reception from the home crowd, declaring that The Valley was his home.
