PARDEW WANTS REPEAT PERFORMANCE

Hameur Bouazza sealed Charlton's win.

Alan Pardew has challenged his Charlton players to prove their excellent performance and victory over Coca-Cola Championship promotion hopefuls Reading was not a one-off.

The Addicks boss was purring with pride after putting one over his former manager Steve Coppell in a thrilling encounter which produced six goals, three penalties and a red card.

Now Pardew wants to see more of the same after an inability to beat supposedly inferior sides undermined last season's effort.

Following his team's 4-2 win, Pardew said: "We've got to aim to do that every week. The problem we had last year was that we had the odd performance like that.

"I can think of games against Stoke and Crystal Palace when we were hoping we'd get promoted only to blow it the week after.

"We now have a tricky trip to Preston. There, I'm afraid, we're going to have to do the same and if we're going to win there that's the level we've got to play at. So there are still some question marks but it was a great performance."

Charlton went 2-0 up courtesy of Matt Holland's first goal at The Valley for four years and a penalty from Andy Gray after Luke Varney's pace forced a foul by Ibrahima Sonko.

Between those goals, Reading's Kevin Doyle hit the crossbar with a spot-kick after he was fouled by Jonathan Fortune.

But after 53 minutes Stephen Hunt converted a penalty at the second attempt to put the Royals level after Sonko nodded home his third goal of the season on the stroke of half-time.

Charlton's response was electric, with the impressive Luke Varney stretching to head home Lloyd Sam's cross from 12 yards.

Hameur Bouazza sealed the win with 18 minutes remaining with a far-post volley from Sam's cross. To add insult to Reading injury, referee Lee Mason gave Sonko a second yellow card for tripping up Bouazza on 84 minutes.

Pardew, who played under Coppell at Crystal Palace, added: "In the context of the game, to have the third penalty retaken because the goalkeeper was two yards off his line was madness.

"The referee said it was the letter of the law but we could see a million games this week and that happens.

"To give that decision was not good management from the officials.

"However, it seemed to spur us on and after that we were awesome."

Although Reading boss Coppell was gracious in defeat, he poured scorn on the display of referee Mason.

Coppell said: "When we got back to 2-2 I thought the momentum should have been with us. But credit to Charlton - they came back strongly and played with plenty of width and made it hard for us.

"Last week people were complimenting us for our clean sheets - now it's the opposite end of the spectrum.

"I don't want to complain about the referee but it did appear a jittery and nervous performance."