Michael Appleton was delighted with the “killer instinct” of his Charlton team as they produced a second-half blitz to deepen Reading’s woes with a 4-0 rout.
Chuks Aneke, Tyreece Campbell, Alfie May and Miles Leaburn scored after the restart for the Addicks to ensure the visitors still have not collected a single point on the road this season.
Charlton are flying under former Blackpool, Lincoln and Portsmouth boss Appleton.
Since he was appointed they are unbeaten and have collected 12 points from a possible 18 to move firmly into the Sky Bet League One play-off picture.
“One of the questions we asked ourselves before the game was to make sure we had the same desire to want to go again and play on the front foot,” said head coach Appleton.
“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 – we didn’t do that.
“We have to be ruthless and have that killer instinct, that when you see the opposition on the ropes you make sure you use it as a strength rather than a weakness.”
The only negative for Appleton was seeing Aneke forced off with what appeared to be a hamstring injury shortly after his goal.
The powerful forward netted for the first time in more than a year in the league.
“We will know in the next 48 hours whether it is a strain, a pull or just fatigue,” said Appleton. “We weren’t expecting him to get through 90 minutes today but we certainly were hoping we’d be able to bring him off with sufficient time to know he would be available for Tuesday.
“That still might be the case – I’d rather be positive than negative.”
There were no plusses for Royals manager Ruben Selles. They have drawn two and lost 18 of their last 20 matches on the road.
“The first half we showed what we can do,” said Selles. “The start of the second half was really good and then in one action we concede the goal.
“We still created chances to equalise. We didn’t and the second goal turned everything down and we weren’t able to stay in the game.
“I’m disappointed. The performance for 60 minutes was there but we need to be able to do it for 100 minutes.
“We go to every stadium to try and win the game – that’s what we showed today. Unfortunately when we concede that second goal we should be able to stay more in the game.
“We need to be more ruthless in both boxes and need to grow, be more strong with our mindset.
“We need to be better in the transition. For the first 60 minutes we were dynamic and aggressive with our pressure.
“It is now a good moment to play at home and build momentum – because we have been performing well there.”
Clarke hails solid Scotland as Croatia win boosts Nations League survival hopes
Steve Clarke credited Scotland's defensive resilience after they boosted their hopes of remaining in the top tier of the Nations League by beating Croatia 1-0 at Hampden Park.
John McGinn came off the bench to score the all-important goal as Scotland took advantage of Petar Sucic's sending-off to claim their first win of the 2024-25 Nations League campaign.
The result – coupled with Poland's crushing 5-1 defeat in Portugal – means Scotland will stave off automatic relegation to League B if they win in Warsaw on Monday.
While Clarke felt Scotland could have done more with the ball, he was impressed both with their off-the-ball work and with the impact of super sub McGinn.
"My first thoughts when I came off the pitch were that we could play better," Clarke said.
"We could be more clinical when we get to the final third of the pitch. The sending off changed the game, but we were due a little break.
"This is a group of players that want to be successful, want to do well for their country.
"That's another clean sheet, two in a row. If you don't concede goals, you always have a chance to win the game.
"It was nice to get John on the pitch and I thought his finish was really good because it wasn't easy. It was nice to be able to look at the bench behind and know we had people who could come on and affect the game. It's nice when we get everybody fit and available."
The victory was Scotland's first in a competitive match since September 2023, when they beat Cyprus 3-0 in Euro 2024 qualifying.
They had gone 10 games without a competitive victory since then, drawing four and losing six, including a return of just one point from three outings at Euro 2024.
Denmark 1-2 Spain: Oyarzabal and Perez on target as Roja secure top spot
Spain secured top spot in Group A4 of the Nations League with one match to spare after defeating Denmark 2-1 in Copenhagen.
Mikel Oyarzabal and Ayoze Perez were on the scoresheet as the unbeaten Roja made it four wins and a draw to pull six points clear of the second-placed Danes.
Luis de la Fuente's side capitalised on a poor pass from Denmark centre-back Jannik Vestergaard to open the scoring as Oyarzabal latched on to a ball from Perez and finished past Kasper Schmeichel in the 15th minute.
Villarreal forward Perez then doubled the visitors' lead in the 58th minute after Dani Olmo turned provider with a defence-splitting pass.
The hosts reduced the deficit with six minutes of regulation time left, as Fabian Ruiz's back pass to goalkeeper David Raya was intercepted by Gustav Isaksen, who had been denied by the woodwork moments earlier, and he slotted into an open goal to set up a tense ending.
But the Spaniards held on for the win and will now face Switzerland in their final group game on Monday, before taking part in the quarter-finals, scheduled for March.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
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