Charlton fell to a narrow defeat to Norwich City in SE7 on Saturday afternoon, despite a spirited second-half performance from Nathan Jones' men.
The visitors opened the scoring on five minutes as Pelle Mattsson unleashed a powerful strike from the edge of the box that went beyond Will Mannion in the Addicks' goal.
After a spell of sustained Charlton pressure, Norwich’s Paris Maghoma forced Mannion into action on 13 minutes.
Sonny Carey had a chance to level things for the Addicks on 26 minutes, but his shot was well blocked by the Canaries defence. Norwich countered, but Mathias Kvistgaarden’s strike flashed across the face of goal.
The hosts couldn’t make their efforts count and Jones’ men trailed at the break.
Miles Leaburn entered the fray on 57 minutes to give Charlton some more attacking impetus, while Tyreece Campbell moved to left-wing back. Campbell’s ball into the box was headed off the crossbar by Kayne Ramsay and Harry Clarke’s follow-up was well blocked as the Addicks came agonisingly close to drawing level.
Shortly after, the referee waved away a penalty appeal when Lloyd Jones was seemingly hauled to the ground in the box by Ruairi McConville.
On 66 minutes, Campbell whipped in a wonderful cross from the left-hand side which was well met by Clarke, but his header sailed over Vladan Kovačević’s goal.
Moments later, Mannion pulled off an excellent double save to deny Maghoma from doubling the Canaries’ lead, keeping the hosts in the game going into the latter stages.
As the Addicks searched for an equaliser, Carey’s shot at goal was well-blocked by McConville and, as the clock ticked down towards full-time, the midfielder latched onto the ball just inside the box and fired it towards goal, but it went narrowly wide.
Despite that valiant second-half effort, it was Norwich who took all three points back to Norfolk.
Charlton will now be able to afford a rest with the upcoming international break and dust themselves down to go again when they host Bristol City at The Valley on Good Friday.
Charlton: Mannion; Ramsay (Kelman 87), Jones, Bell; Clarke, Coventry (Fevrier 72), Docherty (c), Carey, Chambers (Leaburn 57); Dykes, Campbell (Rankin-Costello 87)
Subs (not used): Kaminski, Gillesphey, Coady, Gough, Fullah
Booked: Docherty 33
Norwich City: Kovačević; McConville, Córdoba, Fisher; Gibbs, McLean (c); Ahmed, Slimane (Wright 70), Maghoma (Amankwah 86), Mattsson (Field 86); Kvistgaarden (Mundle-Smith 70)
Subs (not used): Grimshaw, Medić, Darling, Marcondes, Springett
Goal: Mattsson 5
Booked: Fisher 61, Mattsson 71
Referee: Will Finnie
Att: 23,008 (including 3,317 away)
