Charlton Athletic vs Shrewsbury Town. Sky Bet League One Play-Offs Semi-Final.
The ValleyAttendance14,367.
Thursday 10 May 2018 23:20, UK
Jon Nolan's stunning late strike earned Shrewsbury a 1-0 win over Charlton in the first leg of their Sky Bet League One play-off semi-final.
The Shrews midfielder rifled home from the edge of the area in the 80 minute at The Valley, handing Paul Hurst's side a huge advantage ahead of the second leg at New Meadow on Sunday.
For Charlton it was a frustrating evening as they failed to build on a positive start, but they'll know with just a one-goal deficit that the tie is far from over.
Three places and 16 points separated the two sides in the league table at the end of the season, but you wouldn't have known that from Charlton's start as they created two great opportunities to take the lead early on.
The first chance fell to Josh Magennis, who was inches wide with a header, before Jake Forster-Caskey drove forward before drilling a low effort just wide from the edge of the area.
Perhaps the biggest opening of the half fell to Shrewsbury, however, as they countered quickly after 20 minutes and worked the ball into Nolan in the box, but he failed to hit the target from a great position.
The start to the second half was every bit as scrappy as the first was open, with perhaps a bit of realisation dawning on both sides of the prize at stake. It took until the 73rd minute for a goalkeeper to make any kind of save, and even that was an easy catch for Dean Henderson from Forster-Caskey's free-kick for Charlton.
Finally, though, the deadlock was broken with 10 minutes to go. Substitute Stefan Payne's header sat up perfectly for Nolan to hit on the edge of the area, and his superb strike left Ben Amos with no chance in the Charlton goal.
In a match largely lacking in quality, Nolan's superb strike was the real difference and it made him well worth the Man of the Match award. The goal has handed Shrewsbury a huge advantage in their bid to make it to Wembley.
Lee Bowyer: "I'm disappointed to lose. I dont think there was much between the two teams and we gave everything. We had the better of the first 20 minutes and created two or three very good chances but we didn't take them, then it was a great strike from the lad to nick the game at the end. But there's a long way to go yet and we still have 90 minutes to play. We went up there not so long ago and won by two and it could have been more.
"I said to the lads we didn't deserve to lose the game and there's a lot of football still to be played. We'll go there on Sunday and turn things around."
Paul Hurst: "I would have liked to have won 2-0 like we did here last time! It was a proper game, as you'd expect at this stage. Both teams had their moments, we started well but Charlton had a couple of chances. Second half I thought we did very well and looked a threat but some of our final passes were poor.
"I think the strike was worthy of winning the game, but the boring cliche will come out that it's only half-time. We do have a slight advantage but I'm not getting carried away."
Shrewsbury host Charlton at New Meadow on Sunday evening, live on Sky Sports Football from 5pm. Kick-off is at 5.15pm.
