PARDEW THRILLED WITH DONNY WIN

Pardew - back to winning ways.

Alan Pardew applauded his Charlton side's performance after they ended their recent losing run against Doncaster at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Successive defeats against Preston and Wolves had placed Pardew's team under scrutiny coming into the game, and although they had to defend for the majority of the contest, Andy Gray's third-minute goal proved enough to earn them the points from a 1-0 victory.

"It was a good way to bounce back (from the Wolves game)," Pardew said. "We played the same personnel, but we changed our shape a little bit.

"We conceded possession at times and I was a bit disappointed with the first half.

"I thought we were too much up for the war and couldn't settle ourselves down to keep possession.

"In the second half I thought we played very well and perhaps should have wrapped the game up with a second."

Pardew also felt that it was vital for his side to register a win over newly-promoted Doncaster after his side struggled to win such games last season

"They do play a very fluid and beautiful game," he said.

"We allowed them possession and tried to limit the damage in our final third which I thought we did really well.

"They're going to beat a lot of teams - it was a tough game and I'm highly delighted with the result.

"I think we've had a tough start with Wolves, Preston, Reading, Swansea, Watford, who are all going well, and this is the first time we've played a side who are not in the top 11 and we've won, so that bodes well because we struggled against the lower sides last year."

Doncaster boss Sean O'Driscoll felt that his side's defeat was reminiscent of their loss at Birmingham on Saturday.

The home side created a number of chances and dominated possession, but lacked a cutting edge in attack and were unable to turn their dominance into goals and points.

Veteran striker Gareth Taylor wasted their two best opportunities midway through the second-half leaving O'Driscoll rueful.

"It was a bit like deja-vu, similar to the Birmingham game," he said.

"We dominated everything apart from the scoreline. Three games ago people were singing from the rafters saying what a good start we'd had and there was only one person with his feet on the ground, and that was me.

"We'll take the positives from it, of which there were many, and we'll try to improve which is what we do every game.

"Performance-wise, I thought we dominated from start to finish. Credit to Charlton, we put them under an awful lot of pressure, but in this division teams don't get phased. They're used to it and don't panic.

"I thought we dominated possession, dominated most of the things in the game apart from putting the ball in the back of the net."