Crystal Palace 4-1 Charlton: Dwight Gayle scores hat-trick as Alou Diarra is sent of for Charlton in south London derby

 

The difference, it transpired, was that extra bit of guile. Wilfried Zaha does not always appear to have it in abundance, but his trickery was to undo Charlton and see Crystal Palace safely through. The Championship doesn’t make them like him.

 

Selhurst Park had endured a tame south London derby until the winger out-witted left back Morgan Fox, got his head up and found Fraizer Campbell nine yards from goal six minutes after the break.

 

The striker sorted out his feet and coolly placed past Nick Pope for his first goal since February. There was relief for that after a spate of injuries and much more for the fact this would not end up as a nasty Capital One Cup shock for Alan Pardew against a club where the ill-feeling is entirely mutual. 

Zaha had saved this game from itself but the night really belonged to Dwight Gayle, who ended with a hat-trick which will doubtless do him the world of good. Now the trick is to start firing in the Premier League.

 

‘It was a performance we wanted from the whole team,’ assistant Keith Millen said. ‘As the game went on they got sharper.

 

‘It was good to see Dwight get some game time. He looked sharp all night. It’s nice to have your centre forwards scoring goals. We need that, we haven’t scored for a couple of games.