Cray Valley Paper Mills 1-6 Charlton Athletic: Alfie May double helps League One side to FA Cup win

Clinical Charlton Athletic survived a scare from eighth-tier Cray Valley Paper Mills before comfortably winning an entertaining FA Cup first-round replay.

But the Millers levelled before the break through Kyrell Lisbie’s penalty, despite the striker being felled just outside the area by Addicks goalkeeper Sam Walker.

The tie was effectively over in the first five minutes of the second half as Miles Leaburn powered a header home before May got his second with an angled finish after rounding home keeper Sam Freeman.

George Dobson’s fierce long-range effort made it 4-1, before substitutes Tyreece Campbell and debutant Micah Mbick completed the scoring as the semi-professional side ran out of energy.

Michael Appleton’s men now face a trip to League Two Gillingham in the second round on 2 December.

As they had done in the first game, a 1-1 draw at The Valley, the Isthmian League South East side acquitted themselves well throughout, but they could not live with Charlton’s finishing, particularly that of League One’s top scorer May.

Appleton had made 11 changes for the initial tie 10 days ago but made just five alterations from the side which had drawn 2-2 with league leaders Portsmouth on Saturday.

The lively May had already threatened a couple of times and opened the scoring with some superb control and a dinked finish after Ness’ searching ball had caught the home defence flat-footed.

There was controversy over Cray Valley’s equaliser, as replays showed that Walker had clattered Lisbie outside the area after indecision in the Addicks backline.

However, with no Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at this level the decision stood and the striker, son of former Charlton striker Kevin Lisbie, confidently slotted home from the spot.

The two teams are separated by 116 places in the league pyramid, meaning a win for the non-league side would have been the biggest FA Cup shock ever, and the EFL side set about the second half with the kind of application that showed they did not want to be the fall guys.

First Leaburn, whose father Carl also played for the Addicks, got up well to head in Nathan Asiimwe’s chipped cross and May notched his 14th of the season two minutes later to round off a rapid counter-attack.

Skipper Dobson thumped in a fourth on his 26th birthday before Campbell’s composed finish just inside the box and 17-year-old Mbick’s close-range tap-in added added further gloss to the scoreline.

Cray Valley Paper Mills started their FA Cup journey on 19 August and have played only six games in the league all season because of their cup exploits.

They are in knockout action again on Saturday in the FA Trophy when they host Hampton and Richmond Borough, a side who are a mere two divisions above them.

Cray Valley manager Steve McKimm told MOTD Live:

“I’m ever so proud of them.

“We told them to turn them for the first 10-15 minutes in the second half and we started to try and play out.

“And if I can be critical, that’s what hurt us. They made some changes and they played some top players tonight and they taught us a lesson.

“If my players aspire to be professional footballers, they have to get to that level and I thought Charlton were superb, they took their chances.

“But I couldn’t be more proud of this group of players.

“They’ve had a great run, we’ve earnt this club so much money, hopefully now they can get stuff done to the ground and we focus now on the FA Trophy and the league.”

Charlton manager Michael Appleton told MOTD Live:

“There was a lot of talk about team selection after the first game, but the reality is I found out a lot about some of the young players in that first game, how they deal with that kind of pressure, that anxiety.

“We were fortunate that we had the opportunity to try and put that right, opportunities for some of the senior players to come in, and I thought the approach and attitude was top drawer.

“Sometimes it can be a good thing, sometimes you need criticism.”