Charlton Athletic 4 - Norwich City 0

Last updated : 14 November 2004 By Footymad Previewer

It is the worst start to a season for the Canaries who slumped back to the bottom of the table having arrived at The Valley with eight draws and four defeats in their previous matches.

But they virtually lost the game in the first 21 minutes of the match and in the end, had no answer to the pace of Charlton.

The win gave Alan Curbishley's side back to back victories after their success at Tottenham last week and the Charlton boss kept faith with the 4-5-1 formation which brought that success and worked wonders for him again in this game.

He had to bring in Kevin Lisbie over suspended Shaun Bartlett.

The damage was done for Norwich when they conceded two goals in the first 21 minutes. Both of them scored by Charlton's Finnish International Jonatan Johansson, who was a target earlier in the season for Norwich, so it was ironic that he should send the East Anglian side on their way to a heavy defeat.

His first goal came from a Danny Murphy free-kick which was headed on for Johansson to himself head into the net when he was unmarked.

The home side increased their lead when Norwich goalkeeper Robert Green made a good save from Jerome Thomas, but could not hold on to the ball and Johansson was able to rifle home the rebound from close range.

Norwich had a couple of half chances to get back into the game which were squandered by Gary Holt and Leon MacKenzie.

In the second half Norwich continued to play their attacking football but were always vulnerable to a quick Charlton break and their cause was not helped when goalkeeper Green had to limp out of the game with a leg injury which will keep him out of the England squad for next week's international.

Charlton increased their lead with a goal from Paul Konchesky, his first of the season, after he had been on the field barely a minute as a substitute.

He slid in at the far post to score from a perfect cross from Luke Young.

The 3-0 cushion came after Charlton had sustained a period of pressure in which Norwich might have got a goal back, but Charlton completed their biggest victory this season when another substitute, Jason Euell, scored their fourth from man of the match Johansson's cross.

It was a disappointing return to The Valley for Mathias Svensson, who joined Norwich from Charlton and would have desperately liked to have scored against his former club.

After an inconsistent start of the season Charlton seem at last to have found the right shape for their team.

The attendance of 27,057 set a new record for The Valley and was the biggest gate at the ground since the club returned to their home 14 years ago.

Man of the Match: Jonatan Johansson – The Finn scored twice and terrorised the defence of a side who wanted to sign him earlier in the season.