Hreidarsson turns screw to deepen Blackburn misery

Blackburn Rovers 0 Charlton Athletic 1

Blackburn's slump began to assume alarming proportions last night as Hermann Hreidarsson's goal condemned them to their fourth home Premiership defeat of the season.

Their lowest league gate of the campaign was grumbling with disappointment after a shapeless display in which, for all their territorial dominance, they allowed their visitors to look the more composed team.

The key moment came after 32 minutes when Paolo Di Canio, industrious and effective in the sort of game that does not always suit him, whipped in a corner from the right. Hreidarsson got goalside of Garry Flitcroft and his diving header beat Brad Friedel from eight yards.

Their third Premiership victory in a row takes Charlton up to seventh and their manager, Alan Curbishley, like Blackburn's Graeme Souness repeatedly linked with the Spurs job, thought it should have been more emphatic. "I felt we could have paid the price for not getting a second goal, but it was a deserved victory," he said. "Blackburn are a really good side. They are going through a bad time, but we'll take this as a fantastic result for us.''

Rovers, with just one win in all competitions since the opening day of the season, started with Andy Cole on his own up front, which Curbishley admitted had encouraged him.

Cole worked tirelessly to be first to the ball, even when the service to him was indifferent, but too often there was no one to take advantage of his foraging. Even with Matt Jansen alongside him in the second half, the result was much the same.

For all Blackburn's possession, they forced just one save from Dean Kiely in the first half. Tugay touched a free-kick to Steven Reid, one of Rovers' better players, who hit a shot which the goalkeeper did outstandingly well to keep out.

It was typical of Blackburn's night that for all their effort at the start of the second half, the closest they came was a shot from Tugay that hit Jansen.

At the other end, the impressive Scott Parker had one saved instinctively by Friedel, and Di Canio could have made it two after neat approach play in which Parker was prominent.

There was a little flurry from Rovers in the closing stages when one of their substitutes, a 19-year-old local winger, Paul Gallagher, set up chances for Dino Baggio and Cole, and David Thompson had an appeal for a penalty turned down.

Souness bemoaned both his side's carelessness - they had not kept a clean sheet this season - and their failure to redeem themselves afterwards.

"I'm angry and frustrated because we have shot ourselves in the foot again, making another mistake to concede a goal from a set piece," he said. "After that, the ball didn't run kindly for us. It's not a case of being worried about our position, but lady luck has not been with us."

Blackburn Rovers (4-5-1): Friedel 4; Reid 6, Todd 4, M Taylor 5, Gresko 4 (Baggio, 77); Emerton 5 (Gallagher, 80), Flitcroft 4 (Jansen 4, 46), Tugay 4, Ferguson 4, Thompson 5; Cole 6. Substitutes not used: N Johansson, Yelldell (gk).

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): Kiely 6; Young 4 (Kishishev 6, 17), Fish 6, Perry 6, Hreidarsson 6; Holland 5, Parker 7, Jensen 6, Stuart 5; Di Canio 6, (Fortune, 87), J Johansson 4 (Euell 4, 68). Substitutes not used: Powell, Royce (gk).

Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire) 6.