Charlton Athletic 1-2 Swansea City: Addicks suffer second home defeat of campaign as Swans go top

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Charlton fell to a third defeat in four as Swansea came from behind to earn all three points at The Valley to climb back to the top of the Championship table.

The hosts had the dream start as Jonathan Leko opened the scoring inside two minutes – but goals from Yan Dhanda and Andre Ayew in either half mean the points will return to south Wales.

Swansea had only conceded once on the road all season before tonight – but that statistic was doubled just over a minute after kick-off.

Debutant Adam Matthews found space on the right and delivered a low-cross into the path of Leko. The West Brom loanee’s drive took a slight touch on its way beyond Freddie Woodman and into the roof of the net as the wideman bagged his second goal of the campaign to edge his side ahead after just 65 seconds.

Steve Cooper’s side arrived in SE7 with an unbeaten away record this season and set about reacting to that early set-back. Andre Ayew had already seen an effort whistle over the crossbar from a tight angle before he was involved in the Swans’ leveller just shy of twenty minutes in.

Ayew, brother of Crystal Palace forward Jordan, held the ball with his back to goal before laying it off for Dhanda to side-foot beyond the dive of Dillon Phillips – again with the aid of a slight deflection.

The visitors started to look more comfortable in possession as the half wore on without testing Phillips again before the interval – although they thought they had edged into the lead shortly after the restart.

A deep cross picked out Jay Fulton at the far-post. His volley was well blocked by Phillips at the near-post but the ball had drifted out of play before Fulton was able to hook it back into the middle where Ayew nodded into the open net.

 

Ayew did have his goal midway through the second-period. Bowyer was getting ready to introduce Jonny Williams and Chuks Aneke from the bench but the visitors edged ahead as Ayew pounced on a flick-on from a corner to squeeze the ball in at the near-post.

Bowyer was eventually able to make his double-sub and one of those introduced had a big appeal for a penalty waved away soon after. Aneke seemed to have the beaten of Mike Van Der Hoorn in the box, with the Swansea man seemingly bringing down the Charlton striker whilst falling. Referee Peter Bankes awarded a free-kick the other way.

The Addicks huffed and puffed in search of a leveller but were vulnerable to the counter – Bersant Celina curling wide on one such occasion.

Jake Forster-Caskey was introduced in the closing stages but Charlton were unable to breach a resilient Swansea backline – despite a chance falling to Macauley Bonne late on – and fell to their second home defeat of the campaign.

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS