Birmingham 0 - 1 Charlton

CHARLTON continued their perfect start to the Premiership season with a battling 1-0 win at Birmingham on Saturday.

Darren Bent headed Alan Curbishley's side's winner on 15 minutes from a fine Jerome Thomas cross to take his tally for the season to five.

Dennis Rommedahl almost doubled the lead soon afterwards, but his lob over Maik Taylor in the Birmingham goal just cleared the crossbar.

But the home side dominated the rest of the match and Mikael Forsell, Jiri Jarosik, Walter Pandiani and Nicky Butt all missed good opportunities to equalise.

Addicks goalkeeper Stephan Andersen was lucky only to be shown a yellow card after handling outside his box.

Charlton's victory was confirmed when Birmingham defender Matthew Upson sent a clear header over the bar in injury time.

Charlton: Andersen, Young, Perry, Hreidarsson, Powell, Kishishev, Smertin (Fortune 90), Murphy, Rommedahl (Bartlett 54), Thomas (Hughes 66), Bent. Subs Not Used: Myhre, Spector.

Attendance: 26,846.

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