Charlton Athletic edged this South London derby against Crystal Palace as Svetoslav Todorov's goal, 16 minutes from time, proved enough to earn the Addicks three points at Selhurst Park.
It took a sloppy goal to settle an even contest. Although the match was not a classic it never lacked desire or commitment.
Palace showed more huff and puff, perhaps too much, but Charlton with Jonathan Fortune outstanding in central defence, showed more resilience compared with their previous games.
Todorov was only on the pitch seven minutes after coming off the bench on 67 minutes. A hopeful lob into the Palace area, saw Julian Speroni leave his goal expecting a return header from his centre-half Mark Hudson.
But Hudson misjudged the bounce, Speroni was stranded and Todorov was left with the simple task of rolling the ball into the empty net.
Charlton had been leaking goals regularly this season but found Nicky Weaver in spectacular form. The former Manchester City keeper pulled off an astonishing save after just two minutes, somehow turning away James Scowcroft's header around the post and then, with six minutes left and Charlton holding on to their one-goal lead, Weaver made another exceptional save denying new boy Besian Idrizaj.Andy Reid was holding it together for Charlton in midfield as the visitors showed good composure, while Palace relied on the more direct style to get back into this contest.
Charlton had a great chance to open the scoring on 65 minutes, but Chris Iwelumo, with the goal yawning in front of him, sliced his shot wide.Izale McLeod, a 90th minute substitute also missed an easy chance but with literally just seconds left it didn't really matter. The afternoon belonged to Charlton.