New Season: West Ham United 1 Charlton Athletic 2

A new stadium for Addicks fans to visit with West Ham United having moved from their Upton Park ground to what was the London Olympics stadium since the clubs last met in 2007, with the Hammers suffering relegation from the Premiership to the Championship last May.

Charlton manager Nathan Jones made two team changes from the victory over Derby County in the season opener, Miles Leaburn in the the injured Matty Godden, and new signing Arthur Okonkwo taklng over in goal, and it was the Addicks, as Charlton are fondly kown, who took an early lead after a bright start, centre back Lloyd Jones scoring with an overhead kick after Sonny Carey head on a Kim Grant cross on 7 minutes. The hosts played a lot of constructive midfield football but lacked goal area penetration, ‘Keeper Okonkwo dealing easily with balls that came his way, and the interval arrived with no change to the score.

The second half continued in similar manner, midfield runs by Chalobah, Grant and Carrey for the visitors while the hosts continued passing with little impact. Charlton doubled their lead on 56 minutes when a through ball to the edge of the West Ham penalty area was nudged on by Miles Leaburn leaving winger Tyreece Campbell to slot the ball past the home ‘keeper from about 12 yards.

Both sides made substitutions in the following minutes as the hosts came back into the game, and they got a foothold on 74 minutes when Joel Piroe swivelled in the six yard box to plant the ball past Okonkwo. This brought a revival in energy by the hosts as Charlton sat deeper and committed more to defence, and the last ten minutes of normal play saw more of West Ham and just the odd Charlton breakaway.

Four minutes of stoppage time was signalled and West Ham Continued to attack, with solid back line work by Charlton, though the defence almost came unstuck in the 93^rd minute when a shot from outside the 18 yard box was ruled to have hit the hand of Addicks defender Conor Coventry, and a penalty kick awarded to the hosts. Up stepped Valentin Castellanos to drive the ball to his right but, with keeper Okonkwo beaten, the kick hit the right hand upright and bounced into touch for a Charlton throw. Two kick later, referee Andrew Kitchen blew the whistle for full time, giving Charlton Athletic a valuable away victory by two goals to one.