Gayle force too much for 10-man Charlton

DWIGHT GAYLE scored a hattrick as Crystal Palace knocked a gallant Charlton out of the Capital One Cup

Wilfried Zaha does not always appear to have guile in abundance, but his trickery was to undo their south London neighbours.

Palace should have been three goals to the good inside 15 minutes but Zaha had made a trio of bad choices in front of goal.

Then the winger outwitted left back Morgan Fox six minutes into the second half and found Fraizer Campbell nine yards from goal and he coolly placed past Nick Pope for his first goal since February.

It looked all but over six minutes later. Campbell was tripped in the box and Dwight Gayle scored with the penalty.

Charlton manager Guy Luzon sent out a team with an average age of just 23, which would have been lower but for 34-year- old Alou Diarra, and they battled bravely. That was evident in their response to going two down. Substitute Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s corner was not dealt with by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey, or any of his Palace defenders, and Naby Sarr was allowed to score. From there it was down to Palace’s big players to see this through.

Charlton fancied themselves, though. Diarra almost equalised from an identical corner only for Hennessey to scramble clear.

But there was no problem in the end. Gayle was fouled inside the penalty area by Diarra, who was sent off, and the Palace man scored again from the spot. Gayle wrapped up their passage to the fourth round before completing a hat-trick, nodding the ball past Pope from a corner late on.