Charlton 3-4 Reading: Yann Kermorgant's brace seals away victory for Royals

Yann Kermorgant scored twice against his former club as Reading beat Charlton Athletic 4-3 in a thrilling encounter at The Valley.

Substitute Deniss Rakels poked home an injury-time winner for the visitors, after a Yaya Sanogo hat-trick had brought Charlton back from 3-1 down.

Before the match, fans protested outside the ground against Roland Duchatelet, the club's unpopular Belgian owner.

As kick-off drew closer, clips of Charlton's glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s were played to stir up the crowd. As it was, the playing of those golden moments to a half-empty stadium only served to highlight how far the club has fallen.

The home side, who had won just once in their last 16 league games, started sluggishly. Stephen Quinn had a fierce shot tipped on to the post by Stephen Henderson in the third minute before, moments later, the opening goal arrived.

Ola John found space on the left and, as the home defence backed off, he had time to pick out Kermorgant at the back post, who headed past Henderson.

The striker refused to celebrate, so the Charlton fans did it for him, rising to their feet and cheering their former hero's name when it was read out over the PA.

Three minutes later, The Valley faithful were cheering again - this time for a goal of their own as Sanogo levelled matters. Marco Motta intercepted the ball on halfway, strode forward and played in the striker.

He still had plenty to do, but a neat first touch and powerful low finish beyond Ali Al-Habsi proved the Frenchman - who once scored four goals in a pre-season game for Arsenal against Benfica - still has plenty of talent.

Kermorgant, who had a header cleared off the line, scored with a delightful curling shot into the top corner after 35 minutes. Again, he refused to celebrate so, again, the home supporters did it for him.

Seven minutes later, it was 3-1. Kermorgant turned provider this time, his deft through ball splitting the ragged home defence for John to run on to and apply the finish.

Reading began the second half on the front foot, with John skimming the bar with a powerful shot and Hal Robson-Kanu striking just over. But the hosts were handed an unlikely lifeline when Sanogo met substitute Zakarya Bergdich's whipped cross.

His header was clawed away by Al-Habsi but the linesman flagged to signal that the ball had crossed the line.

The goal breathed new life into Charlton. Motta screwed a shot wide and Sanogo twice went close before, in the 84th minute, the striker secured his hat-trick, pouncing on the rebound after Gudmundsson's initial effort was kept out by Al-Habsi.

That looked to have earned a point for the bottom club but, in the second minute of added time, Rakels pounced on a loose ball in the area and finished past Henderson to seal the win.