Charlton 3 Ipswich 1

Optimists like Pards sometimes have an absolute belief that what they have is quite good enough thank you and he therefore gave us no surprises when he chose an unchanged team from the win in Cardiff to face Ipswich Town. The only slight change displayed his awareness of the opponents tactics by moving Reid out to the more peaceful zones on the left and using Darren Ambrose as a second striker behind Iwelumo. The result was 2 goals for Ambrose and an expected three points against a team yet to win away from home this season and with a run of 13 games since March without a win on the road.

So its 37 points and 11 wins now for the Addicks but, if he's anything like Steve Coppell who only enjoys a win for 20 minutes, Pards will already be looking at the next fixture and wondering how he's going to face West Brom without Mills, Fortune and Sam.

The result means that until Watford's game at Stoke today there's only three points that now cover the top three, with the leaders now only 2 points in front of us and Watford will not feel too confident when they see that Stoke are, after Burnley, the form team at the moment with 13 points from the last 18. And to give Pards a further boost before next weekend, we're also 3rd on current form with 12 points from the last 6 games while West Brom, despite their last minute winner at Leicester, haven't won at home in their last three games at the Hawthorns with 2 draws and a 2-4 defeat to Coventry.

As for the papers, the telegraph reminds us, despite the emergence of Ambrose as a striker, of the importance of our little irish fella, commenting on the third all-important goal with "a sublime lay-off from skipper Andy Reid."

But top marks go to the famous Paul Newman for his report in the independent. "Travel sick Ipswich are beaten by Ambrose's spark (that) sets the home fires burning" thats the stuff we want. And perhaps the best summing-up comes with "Matt Holland and Andy Reid took immediate command of the midfield, while Darren Ambrose and Chris Iwelumo were always a threat in attack."

Meanwhile, over at the posh_murdoch George Davis points out that two important Ipswich ex's were on hand to guide the Addicks to victory. Player scores give 8 marks to Weaver, Reid and the born-again Ambrose, with MOM, despite Holland's masterly performance, going to 2 goal Darren.

In fact the word sublime seems to be in fashion with Pards calling our performance just that as reported in the sportinglife.

The Addicks: Weaver; Mills, Sodje, Fortune, Powell (Bougherra 88); Sam (Semedo 73), Holland, Zheng, Ambrose, Reid (Varney 84); Iwelumo.
Subs (not used): Randolph, McLeod.
Goals: Ambrose 6, 39 Iwelumo 31
Booked: Fortune 76 (foul on Counago), Mills 86 (foul on Walters)
Sent off: Fortune 90 (violent conduct)