Charles reflects on special strike in Saints win

During a 2-0 win over Oxford United, Shea Charles produced a moment of quality to find the net from range, and admitted it was a strike he won’t forget in a hurry.

When asked if he had scored a better goal, it prompted a simple reply from the midfielder: “I don’t think so, no."

“It just came out to me. I’m not sure if Cameron [Archer] meant to pass it to me, but I thought I may as well hit it. We were one-nil up early on in the game, so there was nothing to lose at that point."

The result sees Saints stretch their unbeaten run to 14 matches, with Charles pleased by the overall performance across the 90 minutes.

“We knew it was going to be difficult. They can be difficult to break down at times,” he said.

“Luckily, we got our early goals and then it was a bit flat come the last 20 minutes of the first-half. We got in at half-time and defended our box well, which we did.”

Back-to-back clean sheets were another positive on the day, something Charles believes is key to the team’s consistency.

“Yeah, it’s massive,” he added. “Credit to the two centre-halves, and full-backs who were just so solid together. It helps so much as midfielders to know that you’ve got that protection behind you.”

Having had two consecutive home games in a row, the goalscorer was pleased to help deliver another positive result in front of the home support.

“It felt like we hadn’t been back for ages,” he said. “It’s good to be back and getting the win too.”

After a busy run of fixtures, Saints now head into the international break, with Charles among those set to represent his country.

“Everyone else will get a little bit of a break, but there’s a few of us that are going away to play games for our country,” he said.

“That’s something to really look forward to, and I can’t wait to get away.”