Charlton 2-0 Stockport County (From News Shopper)

Charlton 2-0 Stockport County

4:59pm Saturday 6th March 2010 in

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CHARLTON boosted their promotion hopes with a comfortable victory over basement side Stockport at The Valley.

The Addicks raced 2-0 in front inside the opening 10 minutes after Paul Huntington’s own goal was added to by Akpo Sodje’s header.

With Leeds dropping two points at home to Brentford, this result could yet turn out to be highly significant at the end of the season as Phil Parkinson’s side are now only two points behind the Yorkshire outfit.

Greg Tansey’s long range scuffed shot in the second minute was never going to trouble Rob Elliot in the Charlton goal.

But the Addicks went ahead in bizarre circumstances five minutes later when Kyel Reid’s cross to David Mooney was headed by Danny Swailes onto the head of Huntington and Owain Fon Williams could do nothing to keep it out.

The advantage was doubled two minutes when Frazer Richardson’s cross picked out a completely unmarked Sodje, who headed home from eight yards.

Miguel Llera did well to charge down Swailes’ 16th minutes attempt in the area after Charlton’s defence had initially failed to clear a Stockport corner Sodje blazed wildly wide from the edge of the area on 20 minutes after good build up play from the hosts.

Lloyd Sam just failed to connect with Sodje’s flicked header as Charlton continued to dominate against one of the poorest sides to have visited The Valley for a while, a point summed up by Paul Turnbull’s woeful 25th minute attempt at the other end.

Reid was unfortunate his swirling shot from 20 yards just went wide of the post with Fon Williams beaten.

Stockport’s defence had to scramble away another Reid effort after his shot was parried out by Fon Williams into a packed penalty area.

However, Charlton were forced into an unplanned five minutes before the break when Johnnie Jackson limped off to be replaced by Chris Solly.

Matthew Sadler appeared to clearly handle Reid’s cross inside the box three minutes later and although virtually the whole stadium spotted it, neither the referee or linesman batted an eyelid.

Tansey tried his luck again from long range in stoppage time, but again the effort caused Elliot few concerns as the half finished firmly with the home side in control.

Sam blazed over 10 minutes into the second period after a good move involving Mooney and Sodje.

But there was a wake up call moments later when Turnbull’s low ball across the six yard box just failed to pick out Jabo Ibehre at the far post.

Therry Racon had a similar hard luck story at the other end when he was unable to apply a crucial final touch to Sodje’s cross.

Elliot’s blushes were spared on the hour when he completely fumbled Tansey’s free-kick into the danger zone before Richardson cleared the danger.

George Donnelly blazed hopelessly over before Scott Wagstaff and Deon Burton both entered the fray two minutes later in place of Sam and Sodje.

Ibehre was unfortunate not to get the visitors back in contention with a powerful shot that wasn’t far from finding the target, while Mooney fired wide at the other end from a decent position.

Burton headed over from Reid’s 83rd minute free-kick as lacklustre Charlton seemed more interested in running down the clock than improving their goal difference.

However, only a stunning save by Fon Williams prevented Burton’s shot on the turn from finding the target in two minutes later in what was easily the best moment of a poor second half.

As it turned out, the Addicks were unable to add to their first half tally but the hard work had been done in the first half and now all attention turns to next week’s big derby clash at The Den.

Charlton: Elliot, Richardson, Llera, Dailly, Jackson (Solly 40), Sam (Wagstaff 71), Bailey, Racon, Reid, Sodje (Burton 71), Mooney. Subs not used: Randolph, Semedo, Shelvey, McKenzie, Solly. Att: 16,608.