CHARLTON survived a late Halloween scare to seal a first away league win of the season in Tuesday night’s 3-2 success at Wigan.
The Addicks suffered an early setback when Panutche Camara was forced off with a hamstring injury and replaced by Tyreece Campbell.
It didn’t stop the visitors racing into a 3-0 lead before the break, including a brace from top scorer Alfie May, who took his tally for the campaign to 11.
Firstly, the striker was ideally placed to bundle home the rebound after Latics keeper Sam Tickle parried out his 21st minute header before the 30-year-old drilled a low shot into the right corner from the edge of the box 10 minutes later.
Corey Blackett-Taylor added a third two minutes before the break as the home side were booed off at half-time.
Michael Appleton replaced Miles Leaburn and Louie Watson with Slobodan Tedic and Charlie Kirk as the clock ticked down.
Moments later Wigan pulled an 84th minute goal back through Thelo Aasgaard and then Stephen Humphrys made it 3-2 just before six additional minutes were signalled.
But the visitors held on, much to the relief of a delighted Appleton after losing back-to-back games against Lincoln and Bolton.
The Valley boss said: “Towards the end we looked like a side that hadn’t won away from home this season. It was a little bit nerve-wracking.
“We lacked a little bit of composure but got the job done, which is the most important thing and that’s the first thing I said in the dressing room afterwards.
“I’m not going to focus on the last 10 minutes or so, I’ll focus on what I saw before.
“Until I had to start making the substitutions because of fatigue and cramp, which was (the case for) pretty much all the players apart from Pan, I thought we were great tonight.
“I thought we controlled the game. In the first half some of the football we played was outstanding.”Appleton continued to emphasise he would be concentrating on the positives and said he was especially pleased with the result after a poor opening 45 minutes in the 2-0 home loss to Bolton.
He explained: “That’s what we will be focusing on because ultimately we’ve been able to see the game out, which is massive.“We were on the front foot, we were pressing really high, the players looked like they were enjoying working really hard and making contact with people and that’s what it has to be like.
“If you want to win on the road, you have to have that mentality.
“We looked like we had the bit between our teeth tonight.
“Everyone knew it was a huge game for us because although I was pleased with the way we were in the second half on Saturday, obviously we weren’t good enough in the first half.”
Charlton take a break from their League One campaign this weekend when they welcome Eltham-based non-league side Cray Valley Paper Mills to The Valley on Sunday evening in the first round of the FA Cup.
