Charlton hit five past Peterborough to close gap on Brighton
Published:The “Parky out” cries that greeted Charlton’s 4-0 home defeat to League One leaders Brighton have been made to look spectacularly wide of the mark by a brilliant turnaround that has seen Phil Parkinson’s side emerge as the Seagulls main challengers.
The Addicks have strung together four successive victories, three against top-nine clubs and the latest a magnificent 5-1 thumping of fellow promotion contenders Peterborough at London Road in which they led 4-0 at half-time, to charge from 14th to second.
Two goal apiece for Johnnie Jackson and Lee Martin made the difference for the Londoners but they are still a distant 10/1 to win the title, despite closing to within six points of Brighton.
Gus Poyet’s men suffered their first loss in 13 away to a Hartlepool team that weren’t exactly in great form heading into their meeting with the runaway table-toppers, with Gary Liddle and James Poole’s goals in the final 20 minutes opening up the fight for first place.
Brighton remain firm favourites at 7/4 to still be there come May though and were helped this weekend by the fact that their two closest rivals in the betting were beaten, with Southampton (3/1) falling 3-2 at Carlisle and Huddersfield (11/2) losing 1-0 to Oldham.
The other noteworthy incident in the division was Notts County’s drop into the relegation zone after a second reverse in two games under Paul Ince, this time at Exeter, following the Magpies’ harsh decision to sack Craig Short while in 16th place.
Unsurprisingly, they’re 80/1 outsiders in the title race. See the full League One winners betting odds market.
