Ephron Mason-Clark and Kwame Poku led Peterborough on a local-derby destruction as they beat Cambridge 5-0.

Darren Ferguson’s men stung the visitors with a three-goal blitz in the space of six minutes to set themselves on the way to a biggest-ever success against their county rivals.

Mason-Clark provided the 34th-minute opener with a diving header after a sumptuous cross from the right by Poku and the celebrations had barely died down when Mason-Clark struck again with a 37th-minute tap in after Ricky-Jade Jones fired the ball across the face of goal.

And Posh still were not done there as Poku darted inside from the right and unleashed a 20-yard strike which took a wicked deflected off defender Michael Morrison and flew over the stranded Jack Stevens after 40 minutes.

Things got even worse for Cambridge in the second period when Joel Randall’s pass allowed Poku to strike again in the 54th minute after an Archie Collins-led counter-attack stemming from the visitors’ own corner.

And Posh completed a famous five when Randall’s 86th-minute cross following a short-corner was headed into his own net by Cambridge full-back Liam Bennett.

Reading manager Ruben Selles urged his team to be more ruthless in front of goal after a scrappy 1-1 home draw with Bristol Rovers in League One.

Bottom-of-the-table Reading went ahead five minutes before the interval when striker Sam Smith rifled in his first goal of the season.

But Rovers levelled in the 57th minute when former Reading loanee Chris Martin lofted a fine shot over home keeper David Button.

Reading are now winless in eight league matches.

“Football is all about moments and we had a moment to make it 2-0 [Harvey Knibbs’ chance shortly before half-time],” Selles said.

“Then, in the second half, they scored their goal. But we had many situations to score our second one and we didn’t do it.

“When we did make that pressure with that action from Sam, it was good that he got his goal.

“But we can be better in this area, with our finishing. We had a lot of ball in the opposition half but in those situations, we need to get in more shots and more shots on target.

“We made a lot of turnarounds, when we won the ball, but we made some mistakes after that.

“If we want to be competitive, we have to take advantage of these good positions.

“It is not about individual players missing these chances, it is about all of us. We have been in these situations before. It is as a team that we need to take these chances.

”We have been making a rotation in our League One squad. And I have been trying to be consistent with 80 per cent of the team.

“When we make our selections, we always try to have some options.”

Rovers caretaker manager Andy Mangan is now unbeaten in three league and FA Cup matches in charge since replacing the sacked Joey Barton last month.

“The feeling in the dressing room, it’s really frustrated,” Mangan said. “I feel like the result has cost us three points.

“We’ve created several chances, going right through to the very end.

“We felt like we played well throughout and we had the better chances over the 90 minutes. We all know that.

“We cost ourselves on the first goal. And it’s always hard when you’re 1-0 down.

“But we showed a lot of guts in the team to come back. We were really positive at half-time.

“We came out firing in the second half. The first 20 minutes, we managed to get that goal.

“And although we might have dropped off a bit after that, I still thought we should have won the game in the end.”

Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson bemoaned “two individual errors” for his side’s 2-1 League One defeat at Wigan.

The hosts had enjoyed the better of the first half, with on-loan Fulham winger Martial Godo giving them a sixth-minute lead and Jordan Jones hitting the bar.

But a formation change helped to transform the game after the break, with Kwame Poku equalising nine minutes after the restart, and David Ajiboye sending another shot whistling just past the Wigan post.

Just as it looked as though Posh would force a second goal, however, Wigan struck with eight minutes to go through substitute Callum McManaman, whose rasping strike from the edge of the box secured all three points.

“It’s a bad result,” acknowledged Ferguson, whose side lost for the first time in 10 league matches.

“To lose any game is a bad result but, given the nature of the game, it’s a very bad result.

“In terms of how the game went, two individual errors have cost us. When you’re playing against a team like Wigan, they are a good team, but they gave us a lot of respect.

“They sat back off us, they changed their shape, they were happy for us to have the ball at the back, and it was too slow.

“Once they get the goal, it becomes very difficult. And the goals we conceded stopped any kind of momentum we tried to get in the game.

“In saying that, in the second half I thought we were excellent and we still should have got something out of the game.

“The formation change worked, we dominated them, and we were getting one-on-ones out wide against a winger (Jordan Jones). We had to isolate him, we managed to do that, and we caused them all sorts of problems.

“Look, a lot of the performance was very good, and a lot of the details were very good.

“To come to Wigan and do what we’ve done, when they were penned in, is very good. But individual errors have cost us a result.”

For Wigan boss Shaun Maloney, it was a fifth win in six matches, against a side he feels will be up there at the end of the campaign.

“It was a brilliant win against a really good team,” he said.

“When I analysed Peterborough, I watched one of their games, and it was probably the most impressive performance I’d seen so far this season. And we’ve played some really good teams. Portsmouth, Oxford, to name two.

“I really enjoyed the first half, we tried to limit their space, and when they had the ball, I really liked what we did.

“In the second half, they came out really aggressive, and when they equalised, all the momentum was with them. I felt like there was a 15-20 minute period when it could have gone either way.

“Then we have that bit of magic from Cal at the end, and then we have to defend with everything we had. Sometimes the games you win like that, they give you more joy.

“I have to say again, I thought it was a brilliant game, and a huge win against a team I genuinely feel will come very close to the top two at the end of the season.”

Bolton boss Ian Evatt was pleased with how his side defended after a 2-0 win over Shrewsbury made it four consecutive League One away victories.

The triumph helped the Trotters pile the pressure on second-placed Oxford, with whom they are now level on points.

It was a game of few chances for both sides, but the visitors were the more clinical.

Paris Maghoma’s long-range effort trickled through the palms of the injured Marko Marosi and Aaron Morley confirmed all three points after he found the bottom corner in additional time.

Evatt said: “This is a tough place to come, they are a big physical strong team, every player coming on is my size.

“I thought we defended set-plays superbly well. We are not going to have it our own way all the time; we have to be patient.

“They set up in a good shape, made it difficult for us, difficult to play through, they frustrated us at times, but back to what we spoke about in previous years, they cannot do it for 90 minutes.

“I thought we just started to get them fatigued and started to take over when the first goal came. Then we had to dig deep, and this group can dig deep; they are capable of that, and they showed that tonight.

“They have won their last four home games and not conceded many goals, so to get the victory is really pleasing.

“It is quite a heavy pitch and lots of bobbles, so when we are trying to be precise with our passing, particularly the final third, some of our fast connections against a deep low block couldn’t quite come off at times, but the players didn’t get frustrated.”

Shrewsbury suffered a third consecutive league loss.

Boss Matt Taylor said: “The performance was good up until an error which is uncharacteristic for Marko.

“He has been brilliant since I have been here, and he has been a fantastic servant to the football club and that changed the game.

“The first goal in this league is hugely important, so they go on and we give away a second goal slightly naively.

“For large parts, we were excellent out of possession. We, of course, always want to be better with the ball, but in terms of effort and performance, really good.

“Up until that point (Marosi’s error), we dominated in terms of final third entries, corners and in terms of the areas of the pitch we want to be in.

“We haven’t made them territory advantages count, but we are playing against one of the best and biggest clubs in the league.”

Reading remain rooted to the bottom of League One and are now winless in eight matches after they were held to a scrappy 1-1 draw by Bristol Rovers at the SCL Stadium.

After a disjointed first half, Reading went in front in the 40th minute when Sam Smith drove home his first goal of the season.

Chris Martin levelled for Rovers in the 57th minute, but the game drifted towards a stalemate long before the end.

Rovers had made the first impression with a good run and shot from Aaron Collins that home goalkeeper David Button had to push away.

Reading barely threatened going forward and there was a three-minute delay after tennis balls were thrown on to the pitch as part of the ongoing home protests against Reading owner Dai Yongge.

On the resumption, Reading grew into the game and went ahead five minutes before the break when striker Smith rifled in a fine angled drive after Harvey Knibbs had dispossessed Ryan Woods.

Button saved smartly from Jevani Brown and Collins early in the second period, but Martin, a former Reading loanee, equalised with a well-struck rising effort past the keeper.

Neither side showed much creativity in going for the winner as the game petered out into a tame draw.

Peterborough’s League One promotion hopes were dealt a blow as their nine-match unbeaten run came to an end after Callum McManaman’s late winner gave Wigan a 2-1 victory at the DW Stadium.

Wigan had led from the sixth minute when on-loan Fulham winger Martial Godo reacted quickest to Jordan Jones’ cross from the left and prodded home.

After Callum Lang fired just wide, Jones then saw a 20-yard strike crash against the crossbar.

Peterborough were struggling to get anything going, with Harrison Burrows forcing a fine save from Sam Tickle.

The visitors stepped it up after the break, and levelled nine minutes after the restart when David Ajiboye’s cross was drilled home by Kwame Poku.

Ajiboye came close to putting Posh ahead when he sent a left-footed strike whistling inches past the target.

Wigan made them pay when McManaman drilled home from the edge of the box with eight minutes remaining after Posh failed to clear a free-kick.

There was still time for Posh to threaten a leveller, only for Joel Randall to see a shot hacked off the line by Tom Pearce.

Paris Maghoma and Aaron Morley helped Bolton go five matches unbeaten in all competitions after a 2-0 win over Shrewsbury.

The Trotters dominated the ball for large parts and went close to opening the scoring after 20 minutes.

George Thomason laid the ball off to Victor Adeboyejo in the box before he spun and shot, but his effort flew over the bar.

Bolton broke the deadlock in the 66th minute through Maghoma, whose long-range effort from 20 yards out managed to trickle through the palms of Marko Marosi.

The Shrews had their first shot on target saved with just under 15 minutes remaining. Daniel Udoh slipped in Tom Bayliss, whose goalbound effort was claimed by Nathan Baxter.

The away side were inches away from doubling their advantage when Josh Darces-Cogley drilled a low cross into Dan Nlundulu in the final stages.

The forward turned it goalward, but substitute goalkeeper Harry Burgoyne kept the ball out magnificently with his leg.

Bolton confirmed all three points in stoppage time when Morley placed it into the bottom corner.

John Mousinho is honest when asked what has caught him off guard as a new manager.

The Portsmouth boss is learning the ropes, 11 months into his career, despite guiding his unbeaten side to the top of Sky Bet League One.

As the former chair of the Professional Footballers’ Association and a player who started his coaching badges early, his transition to management has been almost seamless.

Yet the former defender who made 550 appearances in an 18-year career is still getting used to one final change.

“I love the job, I really do, everything apart from three to five o’clock on Saturday is great because I just feel completely helpless,” he told the PA news agency.

“Any time you see a head coach or a manager on the sidelines and their behaviour seems a bit erratic just spare them a thought because you lose that control. Sometimes it’s such an emotional game, emotions get the better of you.

“It’s been the biggest surprise because as a player I always felt in control, at least able to influence something. In some ways you do have ultimate influence and control but in others you’re standing on the touchline hoping 11 players do their jobs.

“A lot of the time it’s a really horrible place to be but, genuinely, I am loving it.

“We knew it (his appointment) might be seen as more of a gamble or risk than normal, although we didn’t think it was the case.

“If you start gambling with the future of the football club you can put yourself in a bit of a tricky spot.

“There’s a risk in every appointment and that was one of my answers when we were talking about the whole process and the appointment itself, there’s mystery with every single appointment no matter how many games you’ve managed or coached.”

That process has taken the 37-year-old, the third youngest boss in the EFL, and Pompey to the League One summit with a six-point lead.

Stretching back to March, they have not lost in the league in 26 games and have won 17 points from losing positions this season – including coming from 2-0 down to beat Reading 3-2 on Saturday.

Mousinho’s January appointment raised eyebrows as he was still playing and coaching at Oxford under Karl Robinson. He had 24 hours before his first game – a 2-0 win over Exeter – but has not looked back, having also had to step down from the PFA.

“I’d been with Oxford, at Fleetwood away, and I didn’t play. I was sat at the back of the bus and 10 days later I was the head coach of Portsmouth,” said September’s League One manager of the month, who credits Robinson for his guidance.

“It’s strange making the transition. Your whole life has changed overnight.

“I had to think about how I interacted with players, how I interact with the staff. As a player you can be very, very selfish. Then all of a sudden, you can’t be as a head coach.

“The biggest change from when I first started playing and maybe in the last 10 years is players have become a lot more conscientious about their own careers.

“It’s an interesting new side of it. When people first started playing it maybe wasn’t particularly cool to do your extras, to look at video analysis and dedicate your life to being a professional footballer.

“We were getting to the back end of the drinking culture when I first started playing and it’s slowly gone out of the game so players are much more focused on their own development.

“We’re probably just a bit behind other countries in terms of the way we’ve embraced that as individuals. There’s no longer the accusation of being busy. It’s good to be good.”

Mousinho takes Portsmouth to Chesterfield on Sunday in arguably the pick of the FA Cup first-round ties.

The Spireites, top of the Vanarama National League, are managed by former Pompey boss Paul Cook, along with the ex-players on his coaching staff Gary Roberts, Tom Naylor and Michael Jacobs.

Just four years after winning the FA Cup in 2008, Portsmouth were relegated to League One and spiralled into the fourth tier before Cook took them back up in 2017. They have been in League One since and Mousinho plans to be the one to take them out.

“When you’re at Portsmouth, one of the first things people talk about is the success with the FA Cup,” he said. “There’s a huge amount of spice to this game.

“The club has been through a lot over the past 10-15 years, going right to the brink of liquidation, so what we’re trying to do is part of the long, slow rebuild.

“Everybody’s desperate to move the club forward, the most important thing is we move the club forward in the right way.

“That’s been the whole mantra since day one. Yes, we want to get out and we’d love to have done it yesterday but these things just take time.”

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley was left frustrated after his side were forced to settle for a 3-3 draw in a thrilling Lancashire derby against Fleetwood.

Sonny Carey’s brilliant brace cancelled out early goals from Promise Omochere and Jack Marriott.

Shayne Lavery seemingly secured the bragging points for the Seasiders, but Marriott popped up with a dramatic last-gasp equaliser.

Critchley said: “It’s really difficult to know where to start because there are so many incidents in the game.

“My overriding feeling is that it’s two points dropped and it’s a game we should have won.

“I don’t know how many shots at goal we had, or chances that we created but it’s numerous and as the away team.

“At 3-2 we’ve got ourselves into a winning position after giving ourselves a mountain to climb first half.

“It’s a game we should see out. Even when they equalise we’ve still almost gone on to win the game.

“It’s a difficult one to sum up. We created chances. We constantly got into the final third in the first half and failed.

“We conceded two really poor goals, but if we keep conceding twos and threes it’s going to be difficult to win games of football.”

The Cod Army made a fast start and looked set to land a first Lancashire derby win for five years.

But they eventually had to come from behind to earn a point.

Boss Lee Johnson said: “The boys are disappointed and I’m disappointed.

“Ben Heneghan, to give an example, had told the lads we should have had nine points this week and instead we’ve got five, which is not a disaster.

“We’ve started a bit of an unbeaten run, but we need to deal with oppositions’ spells better.

“I thought there was a lot of character on the pitch, from both teams. And the fans really made it that derby atmosphere, and I love that.

“I want to see that against Exeter when we play them at home. We can create that with our spirit on the pitch and our spirit off the pitch.

“The spell that we conceded three goals, you ask whether they were fantastic or if we were poor. We felt we should have defended those much better.

“They threw caution to the wind, they had bright, busy players but we should have dealt with it better. We can coach it.

“We’ve started to score goals regularly which is really positive. It’s a sign that we’re improving, but it’s a sign we can’t get ahead of ourselves at anytime in any match and we need to stay focused.”

Jack Marriott salvaged Fleetwood a dramatic late point in a six-goal Lancashire derby thriller at Highbury.

The Cod Army looked set to secure bragging rights against their neighbours for the first time in five years after a quick-fire first-half burst.

Blackpool had a great early chance when Jordan Rhodes’ strike rattled the crossbar after just six minutes.

Promise Omochere opened the scoring for the hosts after 13 minutes after he was left in plenty of space to pick his spot.

And Lee Johnson’s side doubled their lead five minutes later as the Seasiders made a mess of clearing a corner, with Marriott poking home the rebound.

Blackpool goalkeeper Daniel Grimshaw kept the deficit at just the two when he kept out Shaun Rooney with his feet.

Sonny Carey turned the game on its head with a three-minute brace early in the second half.

The 22-year-old, who opened his league account for the season last time out, curled home a nice strike in the 48th minute before quickly firing in a second effort from the edge of the box.

Shayne Lavery completed the turnaround in the 65th minute after being played through by Rhodes.

But Marriott’s stunning 90th-minute strike secured a precious point for the strugglers.

Charlton boss Michael Appleton admitted the 3-2 victory at Wigan – his side’s first away win of the Sky Bet League One season – was ‘job done’.

All the damage was done in the first half at the DW Stadium, with two goals from Alfie May and one from Corey Blackett-Taylor.

After substitute Tyreece Campbell came within a lick of paint of making it four shortly after the restart, the Wigan revival began.

Thelo Aasgaard hit the bar – team-mate Callum Lang had done the same in the first half – before the Norway junior international pulled one back with six minutes to go.

And a frantic finale was ensured when substitute Stephen Humphrys scored Wigan’s second goal in the last minute, only for Charlton to hold out.

“We got the job done, which was the most important thing and the first thing I said in the dressing room afterwards,” said Appleton.

“I’m not going to focus on the last 10 minutes. I’ll focus on what I’ve seen before.

“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.

“If you want to win on the road, you need that type of mentality. We knew the areas of the pitch we had to press really aggressively and we did that and got all the rewards for it.

“Even if they got the first goal, if we’d got three or four wins under our belt on the road, then I don’t think they get a second.

“It’s just that mentality of ‘oh no, surely this can’t happen’, which you could sense was dropping into one or two players.

“But, to be fair, there were a few players on the pitch who rallied round and got after some of our younger players and made sure they could see the game out.”

Wigan boss Shaun Maloney took ‘full responsibility’ for the result after making three changes to a side that had won three matches in the space of a week.

A triple change at the interval helped redress the balance, with Martial Godo coming on and laying on the goals for Aasgaard and Humphrys, but it was too little, too late.

“I spoke a few weeks ago in terms of us having a really great start to the season, and I spoke about complacency setting in,” he said. “And possibly I think that happened again.

“But I have to take full responsibility for that, I didn’t get the team right. You could see the way we played in the second half was very different.

“I didn’t get the team right, the changes I made – that I hoped would have a positive impact – didn’t contribute to a good performance by the team.

“Charlton were very good, they deserved their 3-0 lead at a minimum. But the second half was the complete opposite, and I’ll have to focus a lot on that heading into the weekend.

“As a club, from top to bottom, we have to understand that at no point can we take our foot off the gas, any of us, and that starts with me.”

Derby assistant head coach Richie Barker admitted he still had frustrations despite his side’s 4-0 demolition of Northampton.

Barker thought the margin of victory should have been even bigger after Derby bounced back in style from defeat to Stevenage to blow Northampton away.

He said: “I’m pleased with the result but more so with the performance, the goals were excellent.

“My biggest frustration, if I’m being honest, is that it wasn’t more. It was a good opportunity for us to send out a real message but it’s about reaction and the ability to put things behind them 48 hours later and get on with it.

“Our reaction to losing the ball was excellent, we have to do the right things. People come here to watch goals, but you have to get the ball back to do that.

“Northampton ended up playing three different formations in the first half, which shows we created issues for them.

“People have gone away from here tonight saying we have the right work ethic. I was proud of them as a group of players. At the weekend we didn’t compete physically but here we gained in confidence.”

Max Bird scored his first goal of the season in the 14th minute, steering in a cross from Conor Washington who then burst between two defenders to add a second in the 22nd minute.

Bird bagged his second 10 minutes later when he converted Conor Hourihane’s clever pass and although Northampton made three changes at the break, they were opened up again in the 49th minute with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing dispatching Tom Barkhuizen’s cross.

Barkhuizen and James Collins missed good chances to add to Northampton’s misery but the result was still Derby’s biggest win of the season.

Northampton manager Jon Brady said: “They are an incredible team, they moved the ball brilliantly well with great rotations.

“We talked defensively about the way we had to move with the speed of the ball but when you have players who aren’t moving at the speed of the ball and leaving big gaps, it was plain to see in the first 15 minutes we weren’t at the races really.

“They were probably on a night at their best and we need to have every single player at 12 out of 10 to even have a chance of competing and our levels weren’t anywhere near that.

“We had little spells but we couldn’t get anywhere near their goal. Not being disrespectful to our players but they are a high-class team in the way they played and unfortunately we were below our standards to even try and get anything out of the game.”

Cambridge manager Mark Bonner was relieved to see Liam Bennett narrowly avoid putting into his own net in extraordinary fashion in the closing stages of his side’s 0-0 Sky Bet League One draw at Wycombe.

It was almost a Halloween horror story for the defender in the 89th minute of what was largely a forgettable contest when his wayward slice 35 yards from his own goal somehow bounced over.

That late escape preserved a point for Cambridge, backing up their weekend victory over Carlisle, while it extended Wycombe’s winless run to four games.

Bonner said: “It was a real spooky moment, almost a horror show there at the end, which was always possible tonight.

“It’s a horrible moment and it would have been really unfair because it’s bounced so close to the line and then you have to clear your head really quickly and defend the corner coming in, but I thought we did that well.

“Ryan Bennett has made a brilliant block at the end, JK [Lack Lankester] has got out to block one, Sullay Kaikai has got out to block one and got fouled at the edge of the box.

“Everyone had to put the shift in to do that, so it was a horrible moment that nearly went for them, but over the balance of play a point is probably fair for both sides.

“We felt like we had a couple of good chances to take maximum points and that’s the ruthlessness we need to develop.”

Ryan Bennett produced a towering header for Cambridge, only to denied by the bar and post, while Wycombe’s Garath McCleary had an effort saved by goalkeeper Jack Stevens.

His opposite number, Max Stryjek, then made a brilliant stop to keep out Lankester before Liam Bennett was momentarily left with his heart in his mouth.

Wycombe boss Matt Bloomfield said: “It’s slow motion, isn’t it, when the ball is travelling through the air at that point? Time stops and it’s all slow motion.

“I thought the goalkeeper was going to get his foot to it, ultimately he’s missed it and I don’t really know how it’s not gone in at that point.

“I think the way the boys have played and their effort over the last 10 days, in terms of the four games that have gone, we haven’t had loads of bodies to rotate and keep ourselves fresh.

“We had to change formation as well and I’m incredibly pleased with the application of the players, in terms of how they’re trying to go and retain their identity.

“I think because of the effort we’ve put in for the last four games, us winning the game would have been justified, but we have to be pleased with the clean sheet.”

Lincoln interim head coach Tom Shaw was frustrated after his unbeaten run in temporary charge came to an end, with Oxford coasting to a 2-0 Sky Bet League One victory at a foggy Sincil Bank.

An early goal from Ciaran Brown, plus a second-half goalkeeping howler from home keeper Lukas Jensen, saw second-placed Oxford dominate the Imps, ending their own three-game winless run in fine style.

For Shaw it was a dose of harsh reality following two victories and a draw and he admitted his players had not reached the levels they had previously.

“It was a disappointing night after a very good run,” admitted Shaw. “There will be some reasons for it, which will be understandable, but we come away frustrated after not giving a performance we were hoping for.

“We’ve had a really tough run of games, with a lot of travel, and we just struggled to get to our physical and mental best. They [Oxford] are a very good side with some talented players.

“We were not aggressive enough with the ball. It was probably too ‘nice’ a football match which suited Oxford a little bit more.

“We started well, but then conceded a soft goal. We tried to find a spark and the lads kept trying but we just couldn’t find it and we didn’t create enough volume around their goal.”

Shaw defended big Danish stopper Jensen after his 64th-minute calamity sealed his side’s fate, adding: “He’ll be disappointed as his standards are so high. He has been fantastic and there’s no drama from us.”

The visitors took the lead after 12 minutes, from their first attack, when Brown headed Cameron Brannagan’s near-post corner into the roof of the net.

Oxford could have had more goals, but Jensen denied both substitute Stan Mills and Tyler Goodrham. However, his calamitous error gifted the visitors their second goal, when he attempted to catch Mills’ cross-cum-shot from the right, but only succeeded in fumbling it into his own net.

Oxford boss Liam Manning was delighted with his side’s showing as they bossed large parts of the game.

He said: “It was a real professional performance from us and I am delighted with the players, although it was frustrating at times as in the first half we created some terrific opportunities but didn’t take them. But huge amount of credit to the players.

“We had to make a change early on, bring Stan [Mills] on and we changed the system, and it just shows where the lads are at. I thought we restricted Lincoln to very little, especially in the second half.”

Mills came on after just eight minutes for the injured Sam Long and Manning praised his all-action display, while he also claimed an important assist.

“You forget how young he is,” said Manning. “He can change games, his behaviour is great and I thought he did really well tonight.”

Charlton Athletic recorded their first Sky Bet League One away victory of the season at Wigan – but only after a five-goal thriller at the DW Stadium.

The visitors enjoyed an early let-off when Callum Lang hit the bar with a free-kick to open up a three-goal lead by half-time.

Alfie May opened the scoring in the 21st minute at the second attempt after Sam Tickle had clawed away his initial header.

May doubled the lead 10 minutes later with a cool strike into the bottom corner.

And the visitors were in dreamland when Corey Blackett-Taylor made it three with a fierce drive two minutes before the interval.

Only the woodwork prevented substitute Tyreece Campbell making it four at the beginning of the second half.

And that almost opened the door for a remarkable Wigan comeback.

After Thelo Aasgaard hit the bar with a clever flick, the Norway youth international rifled home into the roof of the net with six minutes left.

The home side were further boosted when substitute Stephen Humphrys fired into the top corner in the last minute, but Charlton held on.