Charlton Athletic 1 Plymouth Argyle 2: Hayles storms Valley fortress

Evan Fanning
Wednesday 24 October 2007 00:00 BST
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Plymouth became the first team to win at the Valley this season with a spirited, if slightly fortuitous, win over a disjointed Charlton side. The Plymouth manager, Ian Holloway, will take whatever away victories he can, however, and the win sees his side move above Charlton in the table.

"I thought it was a very exciting match, which we narrowly won," Holloway said. "Charlton might not like that because they might not have known who Plymouth were beforehand."

The Charlton manager, Alan Pardew, felt the referee Rob Styles was one of the reasons for his side's poor display. "There's a cliché about Premier League referee's dropping down to the Championship that they think the stage isn't big enough for them," he said. "I think that cliché was at his door tonight."

Plymouth started brightly and took the lead when Sylvain Ebanks-Blake tapped in from close range after five minutes.

Charlton scored an equaliser when the Plymouth goalkeeper Luke McCormick got a hand to a Danny Mills shot, only to see the ball rebound from the post into his legs and back into the net.

Plymouth then took an unlikely lead. Lee Martin's incisive chip found Barry Hayles and the veteran striker stabbed the ball under Nicky Weaver in the Charlton goal.

In the second half Charlton had plenty of possession but created few real chances.

By the end, every decision Styles made was greeted with a cacophony of jeers from the home crowd. The Valley had found someone to blame.

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): Weaver, Moutaouakil, Bougherra, Fortune (Sodje 71), Mills, Varney, Zheng, Semedo (Thomas 71), Reid, Todorov (McLeod 31), Iwelumo. Substitutes not used: Randolph (gk), Basey.

Plymouth Argyle (4-4-2): McCormick, Connolly, Timar, Seip, Hodges (Buzsaky 76), Martin, Norris, Nalis, Halmosi, Ebanks-Blake (Sawyer 70), Hayles. Substitutes not used: Larrieu (gk), Chadwick, Fallon.

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).

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