Rovers put an end to Charlton record
Blackburn 4 Charlton 1
Blackburn blew away Charlton’s 100% away record in the Barclays Premiership as Alan Curbishley’s side looked to have run out of steam.
The Addicks have become renowned for their late-season slumps but there are worrying signs their slide is starting a few months early after back-to-back defeats.
Goals from Brett Emerton, Paul Dickov, Morten Gamst Pedersen and Craig Bellamy gave Blackburn a fifth successive win at Ewood Park, with a Bryan Hughes strike just before the interval proving nohing more than a consolation.
Despite coming into the game on the back of five straight away victories in the top flight, Curbishley’s players appeared as if they barely knew one another for the majority of the opening half.
Watching England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, presumably looking at striker Darren Bent and possibly Danny Murphy, will have been given few signs of encouragement to include either player in his squad for next week’s friendly with Argentina.
Eriksson watched as Charlton were rattled inside two minutes courtesy of two mistakes, with Australia winger Emerton on the scoresheet.
Addicks centre-back Hermann Hreidarsson initially failed to deal with a curling left-wing cross from Michael Gray, doing nothing more than chesting it into Emerton’s path.
After a controlling touch, Emerton fired a viciously swerving 20-yard shot into the top corner which goalkeeper Stephan Andersen chose to leave, the ball ending up in the back of the net much to his surprise.
After 18 minutes Lucas Neill’s whipped-in cross from the right came off the head of Jonathan Spector with Dickov allowed time and space to head home his third goal of the season from 10 yards.
Rovers’ rhythm was initially disrupted when left-back Gray was forced off in the 29th minute with what appeared to be a hamstring injury.
That resulted in Neill switching from right to left back, with Aaron Mokoena covering the position left vacant by the Australia international.
Chris Perry could have been shown a red card for a challenge on Pedersen a minute later – having been booked for dissent following the second goal – but escaped with a stern lecture by referee Phil Dowd, and Charlton then found a lifeline.
In the 36th minute they pulled one back, thanks mainly to the bravery of Hughes in scoring his first goal since the final match of last season.
Hughes reacted sharply to stab home at the far post after a flick on from Darren Ambrose, colliding with Friedel and a post and requiring an ice pack over his right eye for his heroics.
That allowed Charlton to finish the half the stronger, although Rovers should have had the chance to restore their two-goal cushion inside the first minute of the second period.
Hreidarsson appeared to tick out his right arm to block a cross from Bellamy but, despite resounding appeals for a penalty, Dowd was unmoved.
Blackburn had every right to feel aggrieved, but they did not let it show and duly made it 3-1 in the 58th minute, with Reid’s low, piercing cross from the right turned home by a sliding Pedersen for his fourth goal of the season.
It should have been 4-1 on the hour as a shellshocked Charlton were again torn apart.
With Dickov playing in Bellamy out wide for a cross to the far post, the defence was stretched, but despite a wide-open Emerton screaming for the ball with the goal at his mercy, he ballooned a five-yard header over the bar.
Rovers were then indebted to Friedel for making two fine saves to deny Hreidarsson and substitute Jay Bothroyd, a former Blackburn striker, as Charlton attempted a comeback that came to a halt in the 90th minute.
Shefki Kuqi – an 81st-minute sub for Dickov – flicked on a cross-field ball from Neill into the path of Bellamy to drive an angled shot past Andersen.
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