Stoke City 2 Charlton Athletic 1

CHARLTON manager Alan Pardew insisted that the turning point in his team's first defeat of the season at Stoke on Saturday was the enforced substitution of in-form right-back Yassim Moutaouakil after 55 minutes.

The Addicks were leading 1-0 at the time when the Frenchman sustained an ankle injury following a rash challenge by Stoke striker Richard Cresswell.

"The tackle was bad and I want to see it again," said Pardew. "We lost him at a key moment in the game and it cost us.

The Addicks had just taken the lead through an Andy Reid free kick, which deflected off team-mate Jonathan Fortune in the 53rd minute.

Charlton were still re-grouping with substitute Patrick McCarthy moving to central defence and Fortune to right-back when Ricardo Fuller was given time and space to pick his spot in the 56th minute.

Stoke substitute Jon Parkin won the game in the 78th when he turned McCarthy to shoot home.

"The balance of our possession compared to chances is not what I want and I need to look at that," Pardew added.

"With the amount of possession we didn't create enough.

"On another day we would have drawn or maybe have won but we need a better cutting edge than we've shown in the first two games."

Charlton: Weaver, Moutaouakil (McCarthy 56), Fortune, Bougherra, Thatcher, Sam (Thomas h-t), Semedo, Ambrose, Reid, Bent, McLeod (Iwelumo h-t).
Subs Not Used: Randolph, Zheng.
Attendance: 12,649.

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