Charlton Athletic 1
McCormick og 11

Argyle 2
Ebanks-Blake 6, Hayles 40

ARGYLE achieved a courageous, famous, glorious victory at the Valley to further enhance their Premiership promotion credentials.

Twenty-five years after their last visit to SE7, first-half goals from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Barry Hayles, either side of an unfortunate oggie by Luke McCormick - who had an impeccable game - collected the points.

The Argyle strike pair's pair, and a tremendous second-half defensive display which set the seal on the win, lifted the Pilgrims to fourth place in the Coca-Cola Championship on a memorable night.

It was the first time Charlton - Premiership Charlton, until the last day of last season - had lost at home since February, a fact which alone speaks volumes for Ian Holloway's men's achievement.

Ollie had had only a mild pre-match tinker with the Pilgrims squad, keeping the same starting line-up that - a late tactical substitution apart - had finished against, and finished off, Coventry at Home Park the previous Saturday.

That meant he kept faith with a formation ideally suited, should he desire it, to ultra attacking - Lee Martin on the right, Péter Halmosi on the left and David Norris one of the central midfielders.

Ollie's only change was on the bench, where goalkeeper Romain Larrieu, newly returned from a successful loan spell at Yeovil Town, ousted Dan Gosling.

Charlton, unlucky 2-0 losers at Wolves three days earlier, made two changes to their starting 11, one at either end of the field and both due to injuries.

With former England international left-back Chris Powell's injury being covered by another full home cap in Mills, young Frenchman Yassin Moutaouakil was called up on the opposite defensive flank.

Erstwhile forward Luke Varney dropped back to supplement the midfield in the absence of Darren Ambrose, allowing Svetoslav Todorov to partner Chris Iwelumo in the van.

Argyle, boosted by a highly vociferous 1,250-strong squadron of the Green Army, started brightly and were good value for their early lead.

Halmosi was the architect, dummying a cross to wrong-foot the Addicks' defence, before slipping a short ball forward to Norris.

The midfielder used the space wisely, squaring the ball to Ebanks-Blake, who could not miss from two yards out, and did not. It might have looked easy, but reading the build-up play was Ebanks-Blake's art.

It took Charlton only five minutes to get on level terms, although they barely deserved to, and, even then, it took a huge slice of luck to wipe out the Pilgrims' advantage.

Argyle were guilty of not closing down Mills quickly enough when the ball was played out to him outside the right edge of the penalty area. It was obvious the defender was going to have an almighty wipe, and he duly did.

McCormick got down quickly and pushed the powerful low strike wide of goal. His save was not as strong as his instincts, however, and the ball struck the post, rebounded out, hit the now prone Argyle goalkeeper and rebounded a second time, this time into the net.

Any concerns that the young custodian, fingered in the Charlton match-day programme as a dodgy 'keeper, would let the unfortunate incident affect him were disproved by a couple of fine stops as the home side wound up the pressure.

The first was to intercept a dangerous ball in from the right by the ever-threatening Varney; the second was an instinctive stop after Lilian Nalis suffered a brainstorm and played in Todorov. The Bulgarian could have had a shot himself but elected to set up Chris Iwelumo, who could not beat McCormick.

With Krisztián Timár snuffing out a dangerous one-on-one on Iwelumo, the Pilgrims needed to show some steel, and McCormick was their saviour again when he blocked a far-post header from Iwelumo on the line.

Hayles and Ebanks-Blake were booked in quick succession by referee Rob Styles as everything went a bit niggly - testimony, perhaps, to Argyle's stubbornness - but the smiles were soon back on their faces as they combined for the Pilgrims' second.

Martin engineered the chance with a little dinked pass into the Addicks' penalty area to Hayles, who looked maybe offside when he received the ball, but who got just enough of a touch to divert it past goalkeeper Nicky Weaver. Just enough? It never even reached the back of the net.

Argyle saw their way through to the interval but started the second half a tad sluggish and Mills again moved forward unchecked before chipping the ball up to Iwelumo, who was a little too far behind the delivery to get the necessary power or direction.

The early attack set the tone for the opening stages of the post-interval play, with Charlton enjoying another sustained spell of momentum. It was, though, largely, pressure without penetration, and some of the finishing was wild.

Nevertheless, it was backs-against-the-wall time for chunks of the game, and, at times, the Pilgrims were their own worst enemy with some clearances that failed to live up to the definition of the word.

To their credit, Argyle reached the midpoint of the half still in the lead, when Ollie strengthened their midfield by introducing Gary Sawyer for Ebanks-Blake, pushing Lee Hodges into a five-man midfield, and leaving Hayles to plough the lone furrow up front.

Apart from a couple of raids by Norris, the traffic remained one way, and the introduction of Ákos Buzsáky was possibly a ploy to change that.

McCormick extended himself to flick a dangerous cross from Charlton substitute Jerome Thomas away for a corner, and even a bizarre decision from Styles to award a corner after Iwelumo clearly passed the ball out of play, failed to unhinge the Greens.

As the minutes ticked by, the desperation increased on both sides. Mills was booked after a long-running dispute with Martin, and Sam Sodje followed after dragging down Norris as the Argyle midfielder broke the last line.

McCormick again came to the Pilgrims rescue as Iwelumo again threatened, and such was the Argyle commitment that one Thomas drive was charged down by no fewer than five yellow-shirted heroes.

That, more than anything, demonstrated why the Pilgrims achieved what few had given them a chance of doing before the game.

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): 1 Nicky Weaver; 2 Yassin Moutaouakil, 21 Madjid Bougherra, 24 Jonathan Fortune (4 Sam Sodje 71), 44 Danny Mills; 12 Luke Varney, 23 Jose Semedo (14 Jerome Thomas 72), 5 Zhjeng Zhi, 7 Andy Reid (capt); 10 Svetoslav Todorov (35 Izale McLeod 31), 16 Chris Iwelumo. Substitutes (not used): 30 Darren Randolph (gk), 34 Grant Basey.

Booked: Todorov 25, McLeod 41, Bougherra 48, Reid 67, Mills 86, Sodje 88.

Argyle (4-4-2): 23 Luke McCormick; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár, 19 Marcel Seip, 17 Lee Hodges (8 Ákos Buzsáky 76); 29 Lee Martin, 4 Lilian Nalis, 7 David Norris, 16 Péter Halmosi; 9 Barry Hayles (capt, 11 Nick Chadwick 90), 10 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (18 Gary Sawyer 70). Substitutes (not used): 1 Romain Larrieu (gk), 14 Rory Fallon.

Booked: Hayles 35, Ebanks-Blake 36, Martin 45, Connolly 54.

Referee: Rob Styles.

Attendance: 22,123 (1,270 away est.).