Football: Charlton revival show continues

Derby County 0

Charlton Athletic 2

Hunt 64, Pringle 86 Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 27,853

GOALS BY Andy Hunt and a late breakaway by Martin Pringle gave Charlton a third consecutive victory and increased their hopes of avoiding a swift return to the First Division.

The fact that both sides began with their top scorers on the bench did little to encourage hopes of an early flood of goals. Derby's Paulo Wanchope had recovered earlier than expected from his hamstring injury, while Charlton's Clive Mendonca was passed fit for his first game since Christmas, but neither was considered sufficiently sharp to make the starting line-up.

Unfortunately, the same might have been said for some of those who did, and the match was half over before either goalkeeper was called upon to make a telling intervention.

With both sides employing five men in midfield, there were times when it seemed that only the installation of a set of traffic lights at Pride Park would allow the ball to clear the midfield congestion and reach the zone of opportunity.

What traffic there was tended to flow down the outside lanes, and in Derby's case it mostly originated with the left-back Tony Dorigo. He linked up with Stefano Eranio to set-up Darryl Powell and Dean Sturridge, but both found the side-netting rather than troubling Simon Royce in the Charlton goal.

The early appearance as an 18th-minute substitute of John Barnes for his injured captain, Mark Kinsella, raised the hopes of Charlton supporters, who had seen nothing to suggest that a third successive Premiership victory was possible other than a couple of abortive runs down the right by John Robinson.

Barnes may be shorter of pace and greater of girth than in his prime but a couple of neat turns to lose his man showed that his touch has not deserted him. Sadly, even he was unable to provide any greater penetration.

Both sides went in at half-time with nothing more to show for their efforts than a Neil Redfearn free-kick that cleared the Derby crossbar by a couple of feet, and a Deon Burton cross which looked as if it was dipping under the bar before Royce turned it away for a corner.

Pringle finally got his shot on target for Charlton early in the second half, though even that was straight into Russell Hoult's midriff. And just when it looked as if Derby had woken up to the fact that a European place was still on their agenda, Charlton finally broke the deadlock.

Barnes' corner was twice partially cleared before the loose ball fell to Hunt, who fired his shot beneath Hoult's body into the far corner of the net. Pringle, on loan from Benfica, grabbed his third in five starts on 86 minutes when he raced on to Steve Brown's interception and slotted home. Charlton are out of the relegation zone for the first time since Boxing Day.