West Ham United loanee Josh Cullen praises Charlton striker Karlan Grant for keeping his cool ahead of added-time penalty against Accrington Stanley

Charlton’s Josh Cullen praised Karlan Grant for holding his nerve and scoring a decisive added-time penalty against Accrington Stanley.

Stanley’s Daniel Barlaser handled Ben Reeves shot at goal, with referee John Busby pointing to the spot after consulting his assistant.

Grant had to wait almost two minutes after the award of the spot-kick before taking it as the visiting players surrounded the officials in complaint.

“He was the coolest man in the house at the time,” said Cullen, who was making his first appearance since nearly three months out with a dislocated shoulder.

“I think that’s what he had to do really. Take himself out of the situation. He did fantastic to hold his nerve and score the penalty. It all happened so quick. I haven’t seen the penalty back so I don’t know if it was a penalty or not but all I know is that definitely on the run of play, especially second-half, we definitely deserved the win and we’re happy to pick up three points.

“Watching the game, you could probably all see that we were the team that deserved to win. We were all delighted to have got the win eventually. We’ll take it and now we’ll move on.

“We’ve shown on quite a few occasions that we’ll keep going right until the death. We’ve done it again today. I think it will be days like this where nick a one-nil. You battle, fight, nick a one-nil win, that you’ll probably look back on at the end of the season, wherever we end up, and think that was a day where it was a crucial three points. All we can do is keep looking at our games. I know Portsmouth and Luton have still got to come here. We’ve got to keep doing our business, hopefully they’ll slip up, and we’ll be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

“From now on, every game is a big game. You can look at whether you’re playing Peterborough, Luton or, no disrespect, a team that’s in the mid-table like Accrington, or lower. Whoever we’re playing now, we’ve got to treat it as a cup final. We can’t afford to slip up. We’ve still got ground to make up and we’ve got to make sure that we take care and win as many of these games in to the end of the season as we can.

The game ended with ten men apiece, after Accy stopper Jonny Maxted and Addicks striker Lyle Taylor were both dismissed after a scuffle with just under ten minutes to go. Charlton boss Lee Bowyer said he will be appealing the decision against his frontman, who will face a three-game ban if it’s unsuccessful.

“I didn’t see it and haven’t seen any video back so fingers crossed for us,” said Cullen.

“He’s a big player for us. If he hasn’t done anything wrong then fingers crossed the people that need to have a look at it can have a look at it and they might be able to rescind it. I haven’t seen it so I don’t know what’s going to happen with that.”

Photos: Kyle Andrews