RED-HOT IRON BURN ADDICKS
IVAN Toney’s goal gave Scunthorpe a leg up on Charlton in the race for the play-offs and Nick Daws has challenged his troops to repeat that sort of display for the rest of the season.
Hakeeb Adelakun had already hit a shot straight at Ben Amos after beating the offside trap once when, on 31 minutes, he did it again – charging down the right before crossing to an unmarked Toney to slide in.
And Daws is eager for the Iron to remain in the fifth place they jumped to with an impressive allround display.
“I’ve said to them that they need to produce what they just produced there between now and the final game,” said boss Daws.
“If we do that and get the rub of the green, then we’ll achieve what we set out to do and that was get a play-off place.
“We know we’re going to have to win a fair share of our games between now and the end of the season, it’s going to take more than a couple of points.
“We’ve got four games left and we want to win all four.”
Charlton boss Lee Bowyer’s focus seemed to be on the Addicks’ hectic schedule and he put the poor performance down to a combination of tiredness and slugishness.
“I wouldn’t say they were hard to break down but we didn’t move the ball well and we just weren’t at the races, to me they looked very tired,” he said.
“But I don’t care how tired you are, you put in a shift. We struggled there and it was frustrating.
“The good thing about playing Saturday-Tuesday is you don’t have long to dwell on it but obviously you don’t have much recovery time.
“I’d prefer to play Saturday-Saturday and give my players a full charge.”
Early on, Adelakun’s drilled freekick from the left sailed over everybody’s head and found Jordan Clarke all alone at the back post but he scuffed his attempt to centre the ball into Row Z.
Adelakun was then the architect of the only goal and the Iron had a great chance to extend their lead on the stroke of half-time but Josh Morris’ free-kick went narrowly over the bar.
Toney almost doubled his tally at the start of the second half, a long free kick drifted its way to the left of the box and his stunning volley was brilliantly tipped over by Amos. The introduction of Tariqe Fosu and Josh Magennis breathed new life into the Addicks, with Fosu’s energy down the left setting up Nicky Ajose on the edge of the box, but his curling shot went high and wide. Adelakun forced another fine save from Amos with the ball destined for the top corner and the Addicks failed to create any clear chances in search of an equaliser.