Alfie May went top of the Sky Bet League One goalscoring charts on Tuesday night with a goal against his former team Cheltenham Town in Charlton's 3-1 win and there was a sense of relief from the striker at full-time.
The 30-year-old’s 90th minute tap-in was his 18th league goal since joining Charlton from Cheltenham in the summer but his first league goal in open play since netting against Peterborough United in January.
Speaking to CharltonTV after the game, he said: “Corr, I needed that goal didn’t I? I don’t know what’s up with me at the minute. When Thierry [Small] passed me the ball I just thanked him so many times in there [the dressing room]. It was just nice to put it into an empty net and probably on another day I walk off the pitch with four or five goals.”
May’s goal was put on a plate for him by Thierry Small, who robbed the ball off Tom Pett and squared to May to put into an empty goal.
“With Thierry you see what he does,” May explained. “He gets down that line and whips balls in. He brings assists to the game. We were 2-1 up, he could have run to the corner flag but credit to him, he’s got my goal tonight. I’m absolutely delighted. I just needed something like that to have a kick start. I don’t know if I’m chasing that goal. I know the pressure is on me to score. That’s probably up there with one of my best goals.
“Honestly I wouldn’t care how it goes in off me. You know yourself as a player, I’ve played the game long enough, I’m in and around the top goalscorers, I think I’ve gone top tonight, so I know that I score goals but when you are on a goal drought and nothing lands for you, you just need something to hit you and a prime example tonight, when you get a tap in to an open goal.
"I took a touch because straight away I was thinking, ‘I could put this over from two yards out’. It’s lucky I got the goal and we’ve got the points. Take the goals away - we all want to win, we know we’re fighting and it’s a massive three points.”
The goal came at the end of a game where May had plenty of chances and he felt he could have done better with some of them.
He said: “I think the rebound, I’ve tried to lash at it when it rebounded back at me. I probably could have just slotted it in the bottom corner - that’s what I sort of have got a trust in myself having that composure in front of goal and listen, I’ve been lacking it, I know that myself. I’m old enough to put my hands up to say I haven’t been good in front of goal recently.”
Tyreeq Bakinson gave Charlton a 2-1 lead with seven minutes to go and May was booked for his part in the celebrations after the goal.
The bewildered striker said: “I got pulled into the crowd and I got booked. I said to the ref, ‘how’s that my fault?’. He said, ‘you didn’t, you were in the crowd.’ and I went, ‘I didn’t go in the crowd!’. I said to him that it’s a silly rule because I genuinely didn’t go into the crowd. They are there and you want to celebrate with your fans.”
May very deliberately didn’t celebrate his goal, Charlton’s third in a 3-1 win, against his former team.
He said: “I was never celebrating anyway. You have to show respect to a team that set a platform for me and let me thrive at a club like this. It’s a brilliant place so I had to give that respect.”
