Charlton Athletic have knack of finding ‘different ways to win matches’

Ben Garner reckons that his Charlton Athletic side deserve credit for finding different ways to win matches after they moved into the EFL Cup fourth round.

The Addicks won 5-4 on penalties at Stevenage on Tuesday night.

But the League Two hosts took the lead when Luke Norris scored from the spot midway through the first period – Richard Chin handling – and they had a number of other big chances to extend their lead.

Charlton only really sparked into life in the final 15 minutes after boss Garner had made a spate of substitutions.

Chuks Aneke slammed the Addicks level in the 87th minute and then they held their nerve with Sean Clare, Jake Forster-Caskey, Jes Rak-Sakyi, Aneke and Scott Fraser scoring their penalties.

“When teams do sit and make it difficult – we kept passing it and moving it and they got deeper and tired,” said Garner. “Eventually you open the gaps up. That is still something we can improve, for sure, but it’s something you have to do sometimes.

“You can watch a Premier League game and you watch teams that sit in and defend – even the top, top teams with the best players in the world struggle to break them down at times and they have to go late in games to win.

“It’s something we’ll have to do on occasions this season – it’s finding different ways to win games in different scenarios.

“We’ve done that twice now in this competition. QPR at home and again today. It’s a sign of a team that is growing in confidence and mentality. Ultimately it’s about getting through to that next round and let’s hope for a good draw on Thursday.”

Garner was animated on the sidelines and could be seen urging his team to pick up the tempo on more than one occasion.

“First half we could’ve been a bit more aggressive,” he said. “For example our two centre-backs were 10 yards too deep with the ball. We could’ve pushed another 10 yards with the ball, been up near the halfway line and forced them back – then pinned in on counter-attacks to stop them breaking down the pitch.

“We’ve had three full training weeks this season, so all this information we’re trying to get across is with minimal time on the training ground, quick turnarounds and using the video and analysis to do it.

“Hopefully with more time going into Christmas and the new year there is less midweek games. We’ve done the bulk of the season. We will improve on those things the more we work together.”

After three successive cup matches the Addicks head back into League One action at Burton Albion this weekend.

“It’s a big push for Saturday and then we get a full week [to prepare]. We need a bit of recovery and a bit of training time. We’ve had a lot of games in this period. The fact we’re progressing in cup competitions is giving us extra games, which is what we want but it is meaning we’re having to go again and again.

“Burton will be a difficult game.

“They’ve done really well in recent weeks. I’ve been looking at some of the performance metrics and stats and they are quite high for chances created, shots and even possession. I think there league position is a little bit false, similar to MK.

“They’ve got good players within their squad but off the back of this [EFL Cup win] we go there with confidence and momentum.”

PICTURES: KYLE ANDREWS