Charlton boss Lee Bowyer pleased to see progress from both Albie Morgan and Marcus Maddison during EFL Trophy win over Leyton Orient

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Charlton midfielder Albie Morgan’s progression continues to catch the eye of manager Lee Bowyer.

The 20-year-old shone during the 3-1 EFL Trophy win over Leyton Orient, bagging two assists and hitting the woodwork himself during the South Londoners’ final game in the competition this season.

Morgan squared for Wassim Aouachria to open the scoring midway through the first-half, before feeding Marcus Maddison to make the game safe with Charlton’s third late on.

Bowyer is pleased to see the youngster improving as his career goes on.

The Addicks boss said: “He’s doing the right things now Albie, he’s stepping up. Especially tonight as he’s one of the more senior ones from them young lads.

“I thought Albie, again, he’s taken a step forward. The best thing about that, he was unlucky not to get a goal, is that he’s running forward. He was prepared to run beyond the strikers. He hit the post. He lost the ball once in the middle of the park towards the end.

“It wasn’t even his fault, it took a bad bobble. Bobbled over his foot. But then his reaction was excellent, he chased back to the edge of the box. Got booked for it, which was harsh because he didn’t even foul the fella.”

Recent arrival Maddison also had an assist of his own to go with his maiden Charlton goal, swinging in a teasing free-kick that Jay Mingi headed home to double the lead shortly before Louis Dennis pulled one back for the visitors.

Bowyer had asked to see more effort from the former Peterborough United man after he made his full debut during Saturday’s FA Cup defeat to Plymouth Argyle.

“Maddison, he looked a bit better today,” added Bowyer.

“He worked harder. He’s definitely going to benefit from having 90 minutes into him. That was never the plan but young [James] Vennings had to come off.

“That’s what I said over the weekend. I’m going to give him some leeway, I have to give him some leeway. The lad has had no pre-season. The only minutes before the weekend was when he came on 10 minutes against Sunderland. He’s going to be rusty. He’s not fit. He’s had a couple of ankle injuries.

“To get 60 into him over the weekend and then to go again and scrape 90 out of him, it’s only going to benefit us. You see the bits of quality that he does have. A couple of times he put some balls into the box and they were a lot better than Saturday.

“He’s still not quite to his level that we all know that he can get to. But that’s a good thing that he’s moving in the right direction. He was also one that lost the ball and reacted in the right way. Won it back for us or gave a foul away but at least his reaction was there. It was good to see.”

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS/ KEITH GILLARD