When we came into this game I was not very confident that we would get a result of this calibre, but Charlton sure proved me wrong as we smashed Mansfield 5-0 at a rather empty Valley. The first half was a bit of a mixed bag, yes we did go 1-0 up with Lyle Taylor converting a Nicky Ajose cross to slot it into the bottom left corner, however, the whole team performance was not great in the first half and we did look like we could lose the game.
I have to say after some dreadful performances Ajose actually had a pretty good performance last night, he seemed a lot more active and honestly, he really needed this to restore some faith in him from the fans because he has looked lazy and his quality that we all know he has, has just not been there. When we first signed him I thought he was going to be like how Lyle Taylor is now, coming off the back of a 24 goal season with Swindon I thought we had a real livewire on our hands. Hopefully, he can gain some confidence from this because he could be a great player.
In the second half, Charlton just came into their own, a solid second half was played and Lyle Taylor got his first hat-trick for the club also his third goal was something of dreams as he lobbed the keeper who was quite close to his line. The quality that Lyle Taylor has is just unbelievable and I can’t quite believe we have a player like this with us in League One, but here’s to hoping he will be with the club for years to come!
Another player who has had the limelight in his last two games is none other than young Toby Stevenson who made his third appearance for the club last night and he was in fine form. He set up Nicky Ajose with a brilliantly worked outside of the foot pass inside the box to assist Taylor’s second and also provided the assist for Mark Marshall’s tap-in at the six-yard box.
Overall a good performance in the second half, but all in all it was not a great showing as Lee Bowyer said it was not a 5-0 performance, although it’s good to see we can scrape the goals when we need them.
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