After twice coming from behind, the young Addicks were finally sunk deep in injury time by a James Wilson strike and went out of the FA Youth Cup to Manchester United.

The team travelled up on Tuesday and enjoyed the rare luxury of a night in a hotel, as well as a guided tour round Old Trafford. The experience gave them a taste of a professional’s life and will hopefully give them the encouragement to make sure it was not just a one off occasion.

The first team were still glowing in the aftermath of their comprehensive 4-0 win at Chesterfield. Nearest rivals, Sheffield United, trailed Scunthorpe at Bramall Lane on Wednesday evening, but hit back to beat their ten man opponents 2-1. The Blades now trail the Addicks by ten points but have a game in hand.

The debate about whether Bradley Wright-Phillips had scored a hat-trick or not was settled on Wednesday morning when the club credited the third to the striker. Equally contentious was his first, which appeared to have crossed the line via a deflection and the underside of the bar, before Wright-Phillips applied the finishing touch. Danny Green, who struck the original shot, was happy for his teammate to take the credit though. Here are Chris Powell’s thoughts about the disputed third goal:

“I’m led to believe that he’s gone into the ref’s room to try to get the ball, I really hope he gets it.

“It’s no secret that he had a barren run but you could see with the amount of chances he had on Saturday, when he finally took one it was almost like the world had come off his shoulders.

“He’s been bouncing around though. I knew he would be in good form this evening and I’d love to give him all three because I think he’s fully deserved it.

“He’s kept his own counsel and kept believing in himself. We did, more importantly, and the players did, and he never hid. I really hope now it’s the start of another run for him,” said Powell before expanding his thoughts to the performace of the team, “It was a good performance, I can’t say it’s a performance of champions because we are not that, we are Charlton Athletic with 33 games played.

“We have earned the right to be in the position we are in but of course we have still got 13 games to go and a lot of points but it was a very thorough and professional performance from us this evening.

“I felt after the first five to 10 minutes where we could have scored, Chesterfield got into the game and had one or two situations.

“They broke well once or twice and put us on the back foot, you’ve got to make sure – and I reminded them at half-time – to not be sloppy and to deal with the threat, because these are the sort of games you can come unstuck in.

“I notice Sheffield Wednesday came here recently in a local-ish derby and they came unstuck and obviously Chesterfield are fighting for their lives.

“I felt we started off the second half very well. That put us in the ascendancy and put us in a very comfortable position in the end.”

Over 20 scouts, including representatives of Manchester United and Newcastle were at the game. Was Powell worried about losing some of his stars?

“They are watching me actually!” joked Chris. “Hopefully they are just taking in a game because there are not too many games this evening.

“I know the way we’ve done will obviously attract people to us, whether that’s fans or scouts.

“I’ve put a team and a squad together this year that I felt will do the job for me and for this football club. So far they are doing that.

“They obviously need to complete the job because you are judged over 46 games. We can’t be judged after 33, so we need to negotiate the rest of those games and see where it takes us, and then we move forward.

“I hope they enjoyed the game and they go home and don’t pick up the phone.

“I’ve got good footballers and they’ve been exceptional in League One so far. Whether they can make the step up another level or two levels is anyone’s guess, really but I have got some good players who want to learn, who want to develop as they go along in each and every game, and they are doing that.

“They take things on board and I’m hopeful that we are developing young men to play the game in the right way and we will see where it takes us,” said the manager.

One facet of Charlton’s play this season that has Powell’s hallmark stamped all over it is their stoic defending. Another clean sheet on Tuesday for the manager to purr about:

“I’ve got to say that we should have more (clean sheets) actually. For any team that aspires to get anywhere, clean sheets are the key.

“Being an ex-defender, I always felt my defence had to be right because we do have creativity and good crossers of the ball and good finishers.

“Strikers win games but defences win championships – they win promotions.

“It’s a fact that the teams with the best defensive records are normally up in the top places.

“I’m really proud of them. Even at 4-0 we are blocking shots. My sub Leon Cort came on and was blocking shots on the line and that’s the mantra that we have.

“We don’t want to be beaten and we don’t want to concede goals. Goals change games and we want our goal difference to be healthy and we want goals for to be right and especially goals against.

“It’s key and we have just got to keep going and chalking off those clean sheets,” concluded Chris.