Charlton are unbeaten in 2017 and no one in the EFL has scored more goals in this calendar year than Josh Magennis! Well, we haven’t had a lot to be proud about recently so why not take this opportunity? In all fairness, this was a very good Charlton performance by a team that appears to have its confidence back after another turbulent few months in SE7.

After conceding to a Jermaine Easter opener following a slip by the Big Friendly German, it all felt rather familiar at The Valley. However, this time our heads did not go down, the crowd didn’t turn and once we equalised in the 41st minute through Magennis, we actually started to play some decent football.

The Addicks were shooting towards The Covered End in the second half and we were fortunate enough to witness the best 45 minutes by Charlton at home this season. Other than Magennis, the stand out performance was from academy product Joe Aribo who set up Magennis for his second and provided another assist for Teixeira to slot home the third from close range. However, with the imminent departures of Konsa and Lookman on the horizon, it’ll be interesting to see how long Joe hangs around.

Magennis completed his hat-trick in the 73rd minute after latching onto a pass from Crofts and finished with some aplomb; celebrating in front of an ecstatic (and surprised) North Stand.

Although not everyones cup of tea, a lot of credit has to go to new manager Karl Robinson who has clearly realised the huge work to be done to rebuild the relationship between the club and the fans. He ensured the whole team clapped all three stands (just like Matty Holland used to do…) following the final whistle and we also saw the first tunnel jump in a long time! Josh Magennis appearing twice as following his first jump, he forgot to re-collect his much deserved hat-trick match-ball! Just for a very brief second, it felt like we had got our Charlton back.

Let’s just hope Robinson is given the time and resources to build something positive at The Valley despite the hapless record of the current regime.