ALFIE May’s Valley brace secured Charlton a 2-1 victory over fellow strugglers Fleetwood Town.
But they had to come from behind after former Addick Jayden Stockley headed the Cod Army in front after rising high to meet Ryan Broom’s 16th minute delivery.
May drew the hosts level two minutes before the break by latching on to a long pass from Chem Campbell and coolly slotting home past Stephen McMullen.
And the summer signing from Cheltenham Town buried a 73rd minute penalty – awarded following a trip by Toto Nsiala on Corey Blackett-Taylor – straight down the middle of McMullen’s goal to end a run of five straight league and cup defeats.
That string of results cost Dean Holden his job last weekend but for interim boss Jason Pearce it was a winning start to his temporary spell in charge while the search for a permanent successor continues.
“I’ll enjoy tonight,” he admitted afterwards.
“I’ll probably get a takeaway and have a couple of drinks with my family.
“It is a massive, massive result for the club just hopefully to stop the rot and give a bit more positivity around the place.”
Pearce was also keen to heap praise on goal hero May, who now has four goals in the last three games.
He explained: “Alfie is a massive player for the football club. He is a natural goal-scorer and he will score goals as long as we provide him with opportunities he will keep making the right runs.
“He is a constant threat. I think he wants to play with two up top so he has got someone to play with and he can play off them.
“But today with the players we had available we felt it was important we played a 4-3-3 and he took that on board and worked his socks off for the football club.
“I think everyone could see that so it is pleasing that he got two goals and pleasing to see Miles (Leaburn) back today partnering him out there.”
Pearce added: “I heard a stat that is the first time in 50 games we’ve gone a goal down and actually come back to win the game so it is massive mentally for the group.
“I thought the first half we got into them at half-time because we didn’t feel it was good enough for a Charlton performance and where we wanted to be.
“We didn’t feel like we defended the box well enough. We didn’t get enough pressure on them to stop them playing the direct balls so we got into them.
“It was disappointing to go a goal down but the character of the boys was excellent to comeback and score just before half-time, regroup and then I thought they were really good in the second half.”
