Charlton Athletic 1-2 Crawley Town: Reds extend unbeaten run to five with fine away victory
Crawley Town extended their unbeaten run in League One to five games by defeating a poor Charlton Athletic side at the Valley to move them out of the relegation zone.
Rob Elliot had a happy return to his boyhood club thanks to goals from Tola Showunmi and Max Anderson. It was the Reds’ second away win of the season.
Crawley took the lead through a special strike by Showunmi from the edge of the area on the 33rd minute. After picking the ball up from Will Swan, the striker found the top corner to notch up his first league goal for the Sussex outfit.
Boos were echoed around the stadium at half time, aimed at Nathan Jones team’s poor first half showing.
These boos were replaced for cheers after Daniel Kanu chipped the on-rushing Jojo Wollacott to make it 1-1, before Max Anderson put the Reds back ahead late on.
The result pushed Crawley up to 19th, three points behind the Addicks who lay in 12th.
It was a slow start for both teams, but the first opportunities of the game went to the hosts, with Charlton captain Matty Campbell’s shot harmlessly goingwide of the post, before Miles Leaburn had a shot which ended up comfortably in the arms of Jojo Wollacott.
It was otherwise a very quiet opening 30 minutes in East London, with Ronan Darcy being Crawley’s biggest threat, but the visitors were unable to create anything dangerous against one of the best defences in the league.
Crawley took the lead through their first shot of the game, and it was a wonder strike from Tola Showunmi, whose right footed effort from the edge of the box found the top right-hand corner of the goal.
Charlton pushed on from this setback, and almost found themselves back in the game after a corner was cleared to Allan Campbell, but his well-hit volley just went the wrong side of the post, before
Alex Mitchell’s header also went wide of the post after being found free in the box. The frustration of the home fans would start to show themselves just before half time with boos being echoed around the stadium after keeper Ashley Maynard-Brewer hit a poor pass out of play, and the boos and jeers started again as the referee blew the half-time whistle.
Into the second half, Benjamin Tanimu almost made a goal-scoring error as he headed the ball back to Wollacott, but fortunately for the Nigerian international it took a touch off the Charlton attacker and fell to Wollacott.
Crawley had a golden opportunity to go two up, but Maynard-Brewer made two crucial saves, one from a great Darcy effort followed by Panutche Camara’s rebounded shot being pushed away.
Charlton found the equaliser after substitute Daniel Kanu found some space in the Reds penalty area and managed to chip the out-of-positioned Wollacott with a tidy finish.
The away team went ahead with ten minutes left, with Jeremy Kelly having found himself with a lot of space time, hit an effort which was palmed into the path of Max Anderson who fired in his second goal of the season.
Charlton pushed for an equaliser and even pushed their keeper up at the end for one last corner, but Crawley saw the game out on a comfortable manner for their first league win away from Broadfield Stadium since the 1-0 win over Cambridge United back in August.
The Reds are unbeaten since the 3-0 defeat at Northampton on October 26.