25-05-2025
Ex-Dunfermline Athletic defender Josh Edwards celebrates promotion joy with Charlton Athletic
Ex-Dunfermline defender Josh Edwards will be playing in the English Championship next season after a dramatic promotion with Charlton Athletic.
The former fans' favourite played the whole game as the Addicks triumphed over Leyton Orient in their League One play-off final.
Having missed out on automatic promotion by finishing fourth at the end of the regular season, the London club set up their trip to Wembley with a semi-final victory over Wycombe Wanderers.
In front of 40,000 of their own fans in a bumper crowd of 76,193, Nathan Jones' side seized the advantage with Macaulay Gillesphey's curling free-kick after half an hour.
And, with Edwards and fellow Scot Greg Docherty playing key roles, they held on resolutely right into the 12th minute of stoppage time.
Edwards made the move to Charlton from Dunfermline last summer after five years at East End Park.
With plenty of suitors south of the border, the left-back appears to have chosen well with his switch to The Valley.
The 24-year-old was making his 45th competitive appearance of the campaign at Wembley and started 38 of 46 league games to prove himself a key figure for his new club.
Edwards set his sights on playing in the English Premier League when he left East End Park last year and Charlton are now a step closer to the top-flight with their promotion after five years in League One.
It is expected the former Airdrie player will now receive an enhanced contract thanks to playing in a higher league.
However, Courier Sport has learned that suggestions Dunfermline are due any windfall due to add-ons in the deal agreed with Charlton 12 months ago are wide of the mark.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Edwards said: 'It's amazing. I came down here to achieve things like this and get myself up as high as I could possibly go.
'For the first season, it's unbelievable. I'm buzzing.
'We had a slow start to the season and we were getting a wee bit of stick. But I'm absolutely delighted it's turned out this way and ended up like this.
'We were put under pressure at some points in this game. But luckily we overcame them and now we're in the Championship.'
