Charlton Athletic head coach Appleton: We showed killer instinct against Reading

Michael Appleton was pleased with the way his Charlton Athletic side did not let Reading off the hook in today’s 4-0 win at The Valley.

Chuks Aneke, Tyreece Campbell, Alfie May and Miles Leaburn all scored in the second half as the Addicks extended their unbeaten record to seven League One matches – six of those since Appleton was appointed.

The opening 45 minutes were scrappy and lacked any real big chances.

But Charlton never looked back after Aneke headed his first goal of the season – and also first in the league since October 2022.

Corey Blackett-Taylor collected three assists as the Addicks moved up to 10th in the table.

They are four points behind sixth-placed Stevenage but have two fixtures in hand.

Appleton said: “It was a hard-fought one. We know the troubles Reading have got off the pitch at the moment and it makes them more dangerous really – because there is not really much expectation on them.

“There is a difference to playing with expectation on you to win the game every week, like we’ve got here.

“For the lads to deal with it in the first half, once that first goal went in it was almost a belief and switch to play forward with a purpose.

“One of the questions we asked ourselves before the game was that we had the same desire to want to go again and play on the front foot.

“Sometimes when you get teams in the position like Reading are and you go ahead then there can be a tendency to take your foot off the gas a little bit and allow them to get back into the game – fortunately we didn’t do that.

“We have to be ruthless and have that killer instinct, that when you see the opposition on the back foot or on the ropes a little bit that you make sure you use it as a strength rather than as a weakness.”

MAIN PICTURE: PAUL EDWARDS