Charlton slump to 9th

Charlton's occupancy of the 5th slot in the Championship came to a dramatic end today after the Addicks were beaten 2-0 by Ipswich at Portman Road. If Burnley had not lost at home to Wolves, Charlton would have been 10th.

The Tractors themselves overtook Charlton. Hull beat Southampton 5-0 despite despairing chants of 'come on you fog' from Saints supporters. Palace beat Barnsley 2-0 to overtake Charlton while Plymouth won at Bristol City for the first time in 77 years. Elsewhere, the Baggies went down 1-4 at home to Leicester City while new leaders Stoke drew 0-0 at Vicarage Road. In the Forest of Dean, Leamington achieved a comvincing 3-1 win over Cinderford Town, Marcus Jackson scoring twice.

Charlton lined up 4-5-1 with Lita up front and Halford retained at right back. The Tractors signalled their intent with two early chances. In the opening minute, Weaver fumbled the ball and lost it after receiving it from Semedo, but fortunately Ipswich shot over. Weaver redeemed himself later with a good save before the first quarter hour was out.

Then the keeper made another error to let Ipswich go ahead on 20 minutes. Garvan put in what was intended to be a cross, Weaver missed it and such was the force of the cross that it went in off the post.

Charlton were unlucky when a good run by Ambrose set up Zheng Zhi who put the ball in the back of the net, but the linesman had already raised his flag in a somewhat questionable decision.

Semedo was booked on 26 minutes and McCarthy (unsporting behaviour) on 32.

From the Forest of Dean, the half time score is Cinderford Town 1, Leamington 1 (Mackey 29).

Half time: Tractors 1, Addicks 0

Charlton started the second half brightly, but then the news filtered through that Palace had gone ahead 1-0 against Barnsley. On 53 minutes Haynes made it 2-0 for Ipswich, putting Palace ahead of Charlton in the table.

Semedo was taken off in favour of Iwelumo on 59 minutes, making use of the three strikers on the bench, but he made little initial impact. Varney and Gray were brought on at 82 minutes in a last despairing throw but to no avail.

The stats look better for Charlton than the result: 13 shots to Ipswich's 10 (but many wayward); 6 shots on target to 5 (but too often at the keeper); and 7 corners each.

A club spokesperson denied that the defeat was a setback: 'Relegation is not an option. We are confident that we will be offering Championship football at The Valley again next season. Indeed, I understand that the board will soon be giving Alan Pardew a vote of confidence.'