Town twice let two-goal leads slip in a bizarre, topsy-turvy game at the Valley which ended 4-4 with four goals in injury time. George Edmundson and Tyreece John-Jules put the Blues 2-0 in front but the Addicks hit back through Jes Rak-Sakyi and and Albie Morgan. However, in injury time, Town restored their two-goal advantage through Freddie Ladapo and Sam Morsy but Terell Thomas and George Dobson netted in the sixth and ninth minutes of the additional time to claim a remarkable point for the home side.
Town made three changes for this afternoon’s game at Charlton with skipper Morsy returning following his suspension.
Morsy was joined by Dominic Ball in the centre of midfield with Cameron Humphreys dropping to the bench following his goalscoring full league debut at Port Vale on Tuesday.
Manager Kieran McKenna again shuffled his front three with Kayden Jackson replacing Kyle Edwards alongside Conor Chaplin behind lone striker John-Jules with Ladapo, who netted twice at Vale Park, among the subs.
Kane Vincent-Young was back in the 18 following his calf problem with Cameron Burgess and Panutche Camara dropping out having been in the matchday squad at Vale.
Thomas was handed his full league debut for the Addicks on the left of the back three, coming in for Ryan Inniss, suspended following his red card in Tuesday’s 2-0 home defeat to MK Dons.
Steven Sessegnon was back in the team having been rested against the Dons, while Corey Blackett-Taylor was on the bench having missed the previous two matches due to injury. Former Town midfielder Scott Fraser started in the home side’s midfield.
There was a scare for the Blues within the first minute, keeper Christian Walton scuffing a a pass out of the area to Edmundson. Addicks skipper Jayden Stockley seized on it but hit a first-time shot straight back to the relieved keeper.
With the game yet to establish a pattern, there was a break as the 10-minute mark approached as Addicks right-sided wideman Mandela Egbo underwent treatment.
Moments later, Ball was shown the game’s first yellow card for a foul on Rak-Sakyi in the centre circle. On 14 Egbo succumbed to his earlier knock and was replaced by Morgan.
Three minutes later, Eoghan O’Connell joined Ball in the referee’s book for a foul on Jackson on the Town left as the match continued in a very stop-start manner.
Town won a corner from the free-kick which came to nothing, then on 19 Wes Burns struck a low shot from 25 yards across the face and wide.
Two minutes later, Sessegnon sent a low ball across from the left towards Stockley, but too close to Walton, who claimed.
On 25 Town, who were starting to get their game going after a bitty start in which they’d been forced long on too many occasions by Charlton’s high press, carved out their first serious chance.
Leif Davis exchanged passes with John-Jules on the left and cut back. Jackson left it and Chaplin struck a shot which was blocked.
Chaplin curled a 25-yard free-kick into the Charlton wall in the 32nd minute having been fouled by Thomas with the Blues now in charge and with Davis on the left increasingly influential.
On 36 Town made a promising break down the left but as Jackson received the ball, a whistle from the crowd momentarily caused the Town players to pause. However, Chaplin in any case won a corner and before it was taken referee Josh Smith indicated to the fourth official that someone in the crowd was using a whistle.
Two minutes later, Morsy played John-Jules in on goal behind the Addicks backline and as the on-loan Arsenal ran through the whistle was again heard from the crowd with the striker evidently pausing as a result, allowing O’Connell to make a challenge when he looked certain to score.
The Town players again protested to the referee and, while O’Connell underwent treatment for an injury suffered in the incident, a PA announcement called on the person with the whistle to stop or the players would be taken off the field. O’Connell was eventually stretchered off and replaced by Sam Lavelle.
After play restarted, the fourth official indicated six minutes of injury time for the treatment to the two Charlton players and a couple of minutes in John-Jules again went close to netting.
The Arsenal youngster cut into the area on the left, cleverly working himself space for a shot which looked bound for the corner of the net until a hand, which appeared to be Thomas’s rather than the keeper’s, tipped it wide of the post. The Town players protested to referee Smith that they should have been awarded a penalty but to no avail.
However, from the resultant corner, the Blues went in front. Davis’s ball into the near post was met by Edmundson, who powered a header across goal and into the corner of the net for his third goal of the season, sending the 3,000 travelling fans behind the goal at the other end - as well as Ed Sheeran watching from a box - into raptures.
Before play restarted, John-Jules was yellow-carded for taking his time to get back into his own half.
That was the last action of a half which had taken a while to settle after a stop-start opening period.
Once the game had settled into a pattern, the Blues got on top and had begun to create chances regularly as the break approached.
The errant whistle almost certainly prevented John-Jules from taking his first chance, then a Charlton hand the second but Edmundson superbly headed home from the corner to give Town a deserved lead.
Soon after the break, Davis required treatment following a heavy challenge, then in the 50th minute Dobson was harshly adjudged to have fouled Ball as he broke towards the area and was booked, much to his frustration. Sean Clare joined him for refusing to get back 10 yards as Town prepared to take the kick.
And in the wake of the resultant free-kick, the Blues doubled their lead. Chaplin’s shot was blocked, but the ball fell back to the forward, who played it back to Burns on the corner of the box from where the Welshman sent a cross to the near post and John-Jules beat home keeper Joe Wollacott to the ball to head into the net right in front of the Town fans.
Charlton were furious that Town had scored as a result of the incorrectly awarded free-kick with manager Ben Garner taking his protests too far and being shown the red card. As he made his way to the tunnel, the former Swindon boss tried to encourage home fans to make more noise to get behind their team.
Once play had got back under way, the Blues weren’t too far away from a third goal, Davis sliding in and sending the ball wide at the far post from Ball’s cross from the right. On 57, Morsy was booked for a foul on former teammate Fraser.
Five minutes later, Charlton made a double change, swapping Stockley and Charlie Kirk for Chuks Aneke and Blackett-Taylor.
And a minute later, the Addicks, who had looked little threat since the break, pulled a goal back with both subs involved.
Aneke beat Edmundson and crossed from the right for Blackett-Taylor, whose first-time shot as he broke in from the left was blocked brilliantly by Walton, but Rak-Sakyi was on hand to slam the loose ball into the net. Walton was booked in the aftermath, presumably for protesting that Edmundson had been fouled in the build-up.
Town immediately went about looking to restore their two-goal advantage, John-Jules coming very close within a minute. Davis crossed from the left and the England U21 international headed down but at Wollacott’s feet with the keeper not knowing too much about it. Either side of the Charlton number one and it would have been a goal.
Jackson well shot over on 65 with Town quickly regaining control, then four minutes later Burns also hit an effort which was high and wide.
Town made a triple change in the 71st minute, Chaplin, Jackson and John-Jules making way for Marcus Harness, Edwards and Ladapo.
Five minutes later, the Addicks equalised. After Harness had lost possession midway inside the Town half, Aneke brought the ball into the area from the left and hit a shot which Walton stopped but couldn’t hold onto and Morgan following up found the net from close range. The Town keeper evidently felt he should have done better.
Burns was booked in the 83rd minute for pulling back Sessegnon with the Blues looking somewhat disjointed with the home side buoyed by their fans, who had started to make themselves heard since the second goal.
On 83, the Blues had a brilliant chance to win it. Davis’s shot from the left fell to Edwards unmarked in the area but somehow the winger scuffed well wide.
Town looked to have thrown away their chance of a seventh win on the road this season but a minute into six minutes of injury time, sub Ladapo grabbed Town’s third.
The striker received the ball from Morsy 25 yards out with his back to goal, turned and and a low shot which fizzed across the turf and beat Wollacott to his right and nestled in the corner of the net, sending the fans behind the goal wild.
Three minutes later, it was 4-2. Morsy received a pass from Ball and struck a low shot which flew past Woollacott to his left.
Town looked home and hosed but in the sixth minute of injury time Charlton pulled a goal back. A free-kick from the right was squared from the far post by Blackett-Taylor and Thomas tapped in.
Keogh replaced Burns as the Blues sought to see out the final moments but nine minutes into added-on time the Addicks scored again.
A deep Morgan cross from the left found Dobson at the far post from where he looped a header over Walton and into the net to level to the delight and amazement of the home fans.
Town looked for a fifth in the remaining seconds but the referee’s whistle confirmed a 4-4 draw - the same as the U21s at QPR yesterday - from a game which the Blues twice had won.
The Blues were almost made to pay for giving away poor goals at Port Vale having been two goals in front on Tuesday but rescued the win and the same appeared to have happened when Ladapo and Morsy made it 4-2.
But Town were guilty of gifting Charlton goals to allow two points - and top spot in the table with Plymouth in action on Monday - which they'd all but won twice slip through their fingers.
The Blues now nine days on the training field before their FA Cup tie at Bracknell Town a week on Monday.
Charlton: Wollacott, Clare, Thomas, O’Connell (Lavelle 43), Sessegnon, Egbo (Morgan 14), Dobson, Fraser, Kirk (Blackett-Taylor 62), Rak-Sakyi, Stockley (c) (Aneke 62). Unused: MacGillivray, McGrandles, Payne.
Town: Walton, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Burns (Keogh 90), Ball, Morsy (c), Davis, Jackson (Edwards 71), Chaplin (Harness 71), John-Jules (Ladapo 71). Unused: Hladky, Vincent-Young, Humphreys. Referee: Josh Smith (Bedfordshire). Att: 16,625 (Town: 3,139).