CHARLTON manager Phil Parkinson was full of praise for Scott Wagstaff after his first-half goal fired the Addicks into the top six.

Former Addicks keeper Nicky Weaver made two early saves to deny Matt Fry and Johnnie Jackson but there was ­nothing he could do to prevent Charlton going in front on 23 minutes.

Wagstaff saw his first attempt blocked but the rebound fell kindly to him on the edge of the area and the Addicks’ top scorer placed a low shot into the bottom corner of the net.

The 20-year-old winger was denied a second by Weaver in the 31st minute when his 20-yard volley was pushed behind. Wagstaff’s overall performance had Parkinson watching his words and fearing other clubs will soon be looking to snatch away his prized asset.

He said: “Scott Wagstaff has six goals for the season and I find myself in every press conference ­telling people how good he is.

“I’ve got to be careful in case anybody tries to sign him off us but he has got so much energy and in terms of endeavour for the team, I don’t think you could get anybody ­better than Scotty.

“To have six goals and be our top scorer on the back of that is first class.”

After losing their last home match 4-0 to leaders Brighton, and conceding three at Carlisle last week, Parkinson was delighted with his side’s clean sheet.

And he put that down to ­goalkeeper Rob Elliott ditching his pink ­goalkeeping jersey for a more sedate yellow one. “He’s going to have to stick with it after the clean sheet,” said ­Parkinson.

“When you’re a goalkeeper and you concede seven goals, it’s going to knock your confidence, even if you haven’t really been at fault for too many of those.

“I thought Robbie put in a good performance and that’ll do him the world of good.”

In truth Elliott had little to do, though he may have been a little fortunate to get away with a penalty shout after he appeared to clip Wednesday ­substitute Clinton Morrison.

Neil Mellor and Daniel Joneshad chances to grab an equaliser late on, but both failed to hit the target.

Owls boss lan Irvine said: “I thought we had enough of the game and enough chances to have got something out of it but obviously we didn’t take those chances.

“Nicky Weaver made a lot of good saves for us. He’s been outstanding this season.”