Charlton 3 Cardiff 0

CHARLTON climaxed a winning week by soaring into second place in the Championship with Saturday's 3-0 defeat of Cardiff at The Valley.

It brought their haul to nine points and three clean-sheets in eight days, having seen off Southampton and Bristol City away from home.

They now go into the international break having made amends for the three consecutive defeats which threatened to undermine their campaign.

Manager Alan Pardew, who kept faith with the 4-5-1 formation that served the side so well at Southampton and Bristol City, said: "Our quality shone through today, though we were slightly fortuitious to go in at half-time 2-0 up.

"I didn't have to think twice about playing a 4-5-1 at home because I played it for a whole season at Reading when we got promoted from the Division 2 in the Championship.

"I believe it it works for us because we extract a lot of positives from it.

"Having said that, I believe we can play a lot better than that with this system."

Two goals in first half stoppage time set the Addicks on the road to a comfortable win.

Central defender Sam Sodje, on loan from Reading, struck his first for the club with a well placed shot and barely had the cheers died than Chris Iwelumo celebrated his call-up for Scotland B, with his third in three games and a seventh of the season.

Zheng Zhi killed off Cardiff's revival hopes when he headed Charlton's third from skipper Andy Reid's cross in the 80th minute.

Charlton: Weaver, Mills, Sodje, Fortune, Basey, Sam (Ambrose 77), Semedo, Zheng (McLeod 84), Reid, Thomas, Iwelumo (Varney 84).

Subs Not Used: Randolph, Bougherra, Varney, McLeod.

Attendance: 22,866.

See more pictures from The Valley >>>