A virtuoso individual display from Karlan Ahearne-Grant helped Charlton Athletic record a 3-1 win at Southampton in the Fourth Round of The FA Youth Cup on Wednesday night.
The forward broke the deadlock early on before grabbing two assists inside the space of 60 seconds after the interval to propel the young Addicks to an impressive win on the South Coast.
Charlton’s reward for their endeavours at St Mary’s Stadium will be a mouth-watering Fifth Round tie at home to seven-time winners Arsenal.
Southampton 1-3 Charlton Athletic
The FA Youth Cup
Fourth Round Proper
7pm, Wednesday 29 January
St Mary's Stadium
Attendance: 513
The visitors managed a breakthrough after just three minutes. A corner was whipped in and Saints goalkeeper Harry Isted could only palm the ball into the path of Ahearne-Grant, who slammed the ball home from six yards out.
Saints had a chance to respond shortly afterwards through Josh Sims, but the midfielder struck his effort well over the bar.
Ahearne-Grant was always a threat, and he was unlucky not to double his tally for the evening following neat link-up play with England U18s international Tareiq Holmes-Dennis.
But Southampton should have levelled before the break following excellent play from Sims. The midfielder embarked on a flying run down the left-hand side before picking out the unmarked Jake Hesketh, who dragged the ball wide from the penalty spot.
However, Hesketh made amends for that miss in the 67th minute to draw Southampton level. Jake Flannigan drove forward and laid the ball off to the winger, whose deflected low strike beat goalkeeper Harry Doherty.
Unfortunately for Southampton, parity was short-lived as Charlton took the lead again just six minutes later.
Regan Cook was at the heart of it all, starting and finishing the move. After picking up the ball he drove forward before switching play to Ahearne-Grant. The striker guided the ball back into the box into the path of the onrushing Cook, whose first-time effort squeezed home to make it 2-1.
And within 20 seconds of play restarting, Charlton had extended their advantage to seal the win.
Ahearne-Grant played provider once more, finding Joshua Umerah, who outfoxed his marker with a quick turn before arrowing the ball beyond Isted.
