Plymouth Argyle 3 Charlton 2
A very young Charlton side created plenty of chances but were knocked out of the Papa John's Trophy by Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.
Daniel Kanu scored his first senior goal to put the Addicks 1-0 up in the round of 32 tie but Plymouth struck back almost immediately and took their chances well to win what was an open game, despite a late debut goal from substitute Karoy Anderson.
Jake Forster-Caskey and skipper Jack Payne were the only two members of the Charlton squad not to come through the club’s esteemed academy, with 17-year-old Nathan Asiimwe also handed a debut, starting the game at right-back.
Charlton began the tie the better of the two teams and Tyreece Campbell, who caused Plymouth major problems throughout, beat his defender in the seventh minute but just cleared the crossbar from inside the area.
A minute later Charlton were in front when Kanu dispossessed Oscar Halls just inside the Plymouth penalty area. His initial shot was kept out by goalkeeper Callum Burton but the ball bounced back into Kanu’s path and the striker made no mistake with a controlled volley.
Plymouth were only behind for five minutes before an equaliser from first team striker Sam Cosgrove who looked offside when he latched on to Niall Ennis’ pass. There was no flag from the assistant referee and Cosgrove advanced into the box and rifled a shot into the bottom corner of the goal.
Two minutes later the home side took the lead with Ennis capitalising on a misplaced pass and calmly finding the net.
The young Addicks didn’t give up though, creating plenty of chances in an open game with the best involving Campbell.
The winger got in behind the Plymouth defence but saw his low shot well saved by Burton. Later in the half he latched on to an excellent Aaron Henry cross-field pass, beat Bali Mumba and found Payne with a deep cross, but the captain’s shot bounced just over the crossbar.
Plymouth made it 3-1 one minute into the second half when Caleb Roberts stole the ball off Henry on the edge of the Charlton area and finished clinically past Nathan Harness.
Charlton continued to threaten and Asiimwe saw an excellent shot from range well kept out by Burton, while Richard Chin curled a late shot just wide of the Plymouth goal.
Anderson gave the home side a stoppage-time scare when he got on the end of Asiimwe’s pinpoint, long pass and cooly finished past Burton but the Addicks were unable to pull back another to level the tie.
Plymouth Argyle: Burton, Ennis (Hardie 61), Miller (Endacott 46), Cosgrove (Issaka 68), Mumba (Edwards 61), Randell (c) (Whittaker 75), Craske, Pursall, Halls, Jenkins-Davies
Subs (not used): Cooper, Galloway
Goals: Cosgrove 13, Ennis 15, Roberts 46
Assist: Ennis 13
Charlton: Harness; Asiimwe, Mitchell, Elerewe, Chin; Morgan, Henry (Anderson 75), Forster-Caskey (Rylah 46); Payne (c), Kanu, Campbell
Subs (not used): Kone, Oguntayo, Toure, Kedwell, Casey
Goals: Kanu 8, Anderson 90+1
Assist: Asiimwe 90+1
Booked: Henry 10 (foul on Miller)
Referee: Robert Lewis
Attendance: 1,394 (101 from Charlton)