CHARLTON boss Alan Curbishley hailed his players' performance as “heroic" after they took the points against Blackburn Rovers on Monday night.

The long-serving manager was happy with the victory but said his side is yet to get going this season.

Rovers dominated large chunks of the game but a single goal from Talal El Karkouri just after the break was enough to give the home side the win.

Curbishley said: “It was a long 40 minutes after they scored. We've done it on a few occasions. Up at Birmingham they had someone sent off and we backed off and invited a bit of pressure and couldn't quite get out.

“And then up at Grimsby we scored after 10 minutes and then backed off and invited pressure. We've spoken about it all week and the exact thing happened again.

“We scored and then they went down the other end and had a chance. Dean (Kiely) made a great save and the pattern of the game was set. They passed it better, penned us in if you like, and the question was could we break and get that second goal.

“There were some really heroic performances out there. The players are really, really tired, they put an enormous amount of effort in and we got the result we wanted."

He added that some of the performances so far this season were not “Charlton-like", but pointed to the fact that there were many changes in personnel at the club during the summer.

He added: “The players who have come in have taken time to adapt and it's taken time for them to realise what we want from them, but I think the penny dropped after the Southampton game and hopefully we can push on from here now."