Charlton 3 (Holmes 22,31 Jackson 24) Shrewsbury Town 0.
Kevin Nolan reports from the Valley
In front of an apprehensive, still mutinous Valley last Saturday, it was the inimitable Johnnie Jackson who planted a tiny seed of hope with a timely equaliser for Charlton against Northampton. Three days later, a marvellous opening goal from Ricky Holmes accelerated the process of steady growth against Shrewsbury Town.
Holmes’ stunning strike galvanised The Valley and began the first half demolition of the visitors from Shropshire. Within nine more minutes, two more goals put the result beyond doubt and, suddenly, that opening day debacle at Bury seemed to belong in a different season. It’s probably unwise to read too much into improved performances against two of League One’s more moderate sides but Charlton’s success-starved fans are hardly in the mood for caution.
Direct, speedy and determined, Holmes seems certain to prove popular in SE7. His early candidate for Goal of the Season will certainly endear him to his new public.
Picking up a loose ball inside Town’s half, there was only one thing on the midfielder’s mind as moved purposefully forward. Using Morgan Fox’s supporting run to his left as a useful decoy, he stepped inside and, from over 20 yards, detonated a superb, bending drive beyond the reach of Jayson Leutwiler into the far top corner. It was a goal of rare majesty which brought the sparsely populated house down.
While the visitors were still reeling from the shock, they found themselves almost immediately two behind. And it was entirely predictable that Jackson’s name was added to the scoresheet again. After Chris Solly’s excellent cross was battered against Leutwiler by the luckless Nicky Ajose, the skipper bludgeoned the rebound home from six yards. It wasn’t the most elegant of the 52 goals he has now scored for the Addicks but provided yet another example of his instinctive knack for being in the right place at precisely the right time. Not bad going for a veteran whose legs are shot.
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On 31 minutes, the Shrews’ goose was well and truly cooked. A drive from the steadily improving Andrew Crofts, whose unselfish contribution won’t have gone unnoticed by Russell Slade, was deflected for a left wing corner. Setpiece specialist Holmes whipped over a wickedly swerving inswinger which eluded everyone, including bemused keeper Leutwiler, on its irresistible way into the far top corner. A measure of luck was involved, of course, but the delivery itself was lethal.
Ajose’s search for his first Charlton goal, meanwhile, continued without success. He won’t welcome a reminder of the hash he made near the end of converting an apparently simple rebound after Leutwiler parried a long range rocket from lively substitute Ademola Lookman. The bounce was awkward if negotiable. But it shouldn’t be long before this sharp-turning forward strikes.
Alongside Ajose, brawny Josh Magennis was a powerful nightmare for Town’s centre backs. A tireless, quintessential centre forward, he backed in, flicked on, chased down and made a regular nuisance of himself. Magennis the Menace in fact. Shame he couldn’t add a first goal to his wholehearted performance but he missed his best chance before Holmes opened the scoring. Bursting through as Ajose distracted Town’s defenders, he showed impressive pace in holding off Ryan McGivern but failed to beat Leutwiler as the keeper narrowed the angle.
Neat and tidy in their approach play, Shrewsbury only rarely threatened to make things interesting. Centre forward Ivan Toney was a spiky presence up front, earning one of his side’s three bookings for a spiteful foul on the imperturbable Solly, but met his match in young Ezri Konsa, whose occasional lapses were compensated by impressive coolness and poise. Toney managed to provide Shrews’ best first half effort after Junior Brown’s clever set-up but Declan Rudd was equal to the low shot on the turn. During the second period, the combative Toney jabbed Louis Dodds’ cross off target before Dodds himself came closest to reducing the arrears, his dipping effort, following clever combination between Toney and Ian Black, grazing the bar. There was little else to trouble Rudd.
A low-key second half performance was patiently tolerated by a crowd completely unused to watching their team toy with the opposition. There will be, without doubt, tougher assignments in front of them but the seed planted by Jackson shows promising signs of flowering. So before we put the mockers on it, we’ll make that the last word on the subject for the time being.
Charlton: Rudd, Solly, Konsa, Pearce, Fox, Holmes (Botaka 87), Jackson (Lookman 69), Crofts, Foley, Magennis (Novak 75), Ajose. Not used: Phillips, Bauer, Johnson, Holmes-Dennis.
Shrewsbury: Leutwiler, Riley, McGivern, El-Abd, Lancashire (Waring 60), Black, Dodds (Choulay 68), O’Brien (Whaley 68), Brown, Deegan, Toney. Not used: Halstead, Ogogo, Sarcevic, Mangan.
Booked: Deegan, El-Abd, Toney.
Referee: Gavin Ward.
Att: 9174.