Report: Saints stun Charlton with five-star first half

Tonda Eckert extended his perfect record to three wins out of three with the most impressive performance of Saints’ season by some distance, as the visitors ran riot in a remarkable first half in South East London.

There were chances for Caspar Jander, Adam Armstrong and Finn Azaz even before Ryan Manning headed Saints into a 14th-minute lead from a Tom Fellows cross.

Armstrong added the second two minutes later, before assisting the third and fourth goals by dropping deep and allowing runners to race beyond him, as first Jander and then Azaz profited from slick team moves to give Saints a 4-0 lead inside 22 minutes.

Azaz scored his second from another Fellows cross, tapping in from a yard out, before Charlton’s Lloyd Jones headed home a corner in first-half stoppage time, but Saints had done more than enough to end a run of 10 previous visits to The Valley without victory.

Interim manager Eckert handed a first senior start to 20-year-old Academy graduate Cameron Bragg, who replaced Flynn Downes at the heart of the midfield in Saints’ only change from the 3-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday last time out.

Leo Scienza was Saints’ brightest spark early on, setting off on one solo run deep into Charlton territory, and later cut the ball back for Jander to have the first chance of the game, but the German seemed to get the ball stuck under his feet and could only scoop his shot wide of the target from six yards.

It was not an isolated opportunity. This was a flying start from the visitors, who kept pouring forward.

Ryan Manning throws himself at Tom Fellows's cross to open the scoring

Tom Fellows crossed for Armstrong to head over the bar, before the striker sent a 20-yard drive into the same stand behind Thomas Kaminski’s goal, but Saints were looking sharp.

Azaz ought to have given Eckert’s side the lead when another Scienza run laid the ball on a plate for the Irishman, although perhaps a deflection on the square pass across goal just caused Azaz to hesitate, allowing Kaminski to dive at his feet.

Manning was next to go close, whipping a left-footed shot just wide from the edge of the box, as the ball brushed the side-netting on its way past the post, but the defender would be the man to give Saints the breakthrough they deserved after 14 minutes.

Fellows was the provider, as one wing-back crossed for another, with Manning racing in at the far post to head home from close range via the underside of the bar.

Adam Armstrong celebrates scoring Saints' second

It was the start of a sequence of four goals in eight minutes, as Saints ran riot, playing some sparkling football along the way.

Armstrong got the second, as Scienza’s run and pass opened up the chance for the striker, whose first shot was blocked, before he lashed in the second with his left foot, high into the centre of Kaminski’s goal with the keeper grounded.

Two became three with the best move of the game, as Saints built their way up from Gavin Bazunu in goal through Bragg’s pass out to Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who fed the ball into Armstrong as Jander ran beyond him, finishing coolly with a calm side-foot inside Kaminski’s left-hand post.

The goal was a thing of beauty, and a similar move paved the way for the fourth to go in before the first period had even reached its halfway point.

Again Armstrong dropped off the front, as this time Azaz ran beyond him. Played in by Saints’ No 9, Saints’ No 10 took the ball neatly in his stride, rounded Kaminski and rolled in number four.

Finn Azaz makes it 4-0 with just 22 minutes played at The Valley

Saints did not stop there. Scienza fired a shot over the bar as the ball dropped to him in the box, before Kaminski got fingertips to a left-footed shot as the Brazilian tried to sneak one inside the near post, and then curled one into the keeper’s grasp.

Unbelievably, there was time for a fifth before the interval, as Fellows’s deflected cross was tapped in by Azaz, though Charlton did pull one back in first-half stoppage time when Jones headed in a left-wing corner.

That did not deter the packed Jimmy Seed Stand, where the travelling masses were housed, as they cheered their team off after a first half that will live long in the memory.

Armstrong wanted to carry on in the same fashion, rifling a shot goalwards early in the second period to force a flying save from Kaminski, but the second half would pale into insignificance in comparison to the first.

Charlton tried to push to restore some respectability to the scoreline, claiming a penalty when Bazunu tried to punch a cross and connected with a red-shirted player instead, while Tyreece Campbell curled a shot wide from the left corner of the penalty area.

But this was already a job well done by Eckert’s flowing Saints, as Azaz, Scienza and Armstrong all departed to generous applause, but none louder than the ovation for Bragg, whose control from midfield had gone a long way towards putting Saints in such a commanding position so early in the game.

Charlton Athletic: Kaminski, Ramsay, Jones, Gillesphey, Apter (Rankin-Costello 24), Carey (Anderson 73), Coventry (Berry 73), Hernández, Docherty (c) (Olaofe 73), Leaburn (Knibbs 78), Campbell.

Unused substitutes: Mannion, Gough, Laqeretabua, Fullah.

Goal: Jones (45+1’).

Booked: Campbell, Docherty, Ramsay, Rankin-Costello.

Southampton: Bazunu, Fellows (Edwards 86), Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Stephens (c), Manning, Bragg (Downes 76), Jander, Azaz (Aribo 65), Scienza (Robinson 65), Armstrong (Downs 75).

Unused substitutes: McCarthy, Quarshie, Welington, Fraser.

Goals: Manning (14’), Armstrong (16’), Jander (20’), Azaz (22’, 44’).

Referee: Stephen Martin.

Attendance: 22,708 (3,080 Saints fans).