Boss Mick McCarthy said it was “wonderfully rewarding” to see new loan signing Noel Hunt come off the bench to net Town’s 95th minute goal on his debut as the Blues won 1-0 at Charlton to rise to second in the Championship table.

“It’s fantastic, isn’t it?” he said. “Wonderfully rewarding. I’ve always admired Noel Hunt, the way he goes about his job, about his business.

“I thought that if we can get him going again we’ve got a good player. He’s a great character, he’s like his brother. He’s a great character to have around.”

McCarthy admitted that the defeat was probably a little harsh on the Addicks: “I can’t honestly come in and say we’ve played Charlton off the park. I thought Charlton were the better team in the first half and had the better chances.

“We’ve had to make good blocks and good saves, although we had good chances in the first half. I wouldn’t write off what we did.

“I think in the second half we came more in to the game. I’m absolutely certain that the sun had a real bearing on the game, it was difficult to deal with it defensively, balls were bouncing and consequently you get more of the ball in that half. We struggled to head it in the first half.

“It says a lot about the team because we had to weather that and then we got better and in the last 15 minutes it was us that was going to win it, probably more than that. I thought we shaded the second half.”

He had praise for his backline: “That’s what they’re there for. We have defenders who like defending and throw themselves in front of things and block things and track people.

“We’ve got proper defenders who want to do it and they’ve had to do it today because I thought Charlton were good.”

The Town boss says Luke Hyam suffering an injury in the warm-up wasn’t too much of a disruption as he’d named a flexible side in any case.

“We decided that Didzy would just play off Murph,” he added. “The system had him set up with the two wide players, we could put Tabby [in Hyam’s central position] and Ando out wide.

“We’d been watching Charlton and they’ve played 4-4-2, they’ve played 4-1-4-1, 4-4-1-1 as well. Whatever we wanted to do we’d got flexibility within that. It worked anyway.

“It was his achilles. He felt it yesterday but he thought he was OK. You can’t run achilles injuries off, they just get worse and worse.”

He says the absent Teddy Bishop’s hip flexor problem isn’t serious: “Teddy will be fine for next week.”

Asked whether he felt Town would now be considered more serious promotion challengers after the victory, he said: “I think that’s a misconception that they don’t take us seriously. I think at the start of the season we weren’t one of the favourites.

“But after the games that we’ve played and the manner in which we’ve played them, I think they’re taking us seriously.

“I think other teams take us seriously ,which concerns me more rather than anybody else.”

Charlton boss Bob Peeters felt his team should have won: “It’s cruel, but we only have ourselves to blame.

"You create enough chances, you have enough possibilities to win at least one maybe two games, then it’s about finishing that last ball off.

“Then at the end, we got away with it already because we gave a ball away and Andre Bikey put a block in [on Conor Sammon] in the last second of the game.

“Then in the 94th minute when your centre-back [Tal Ben Haim] thinks he can dribble in the middle of the park and try to score a goal, if you get cocky, they punish you.

“We got a lesson today. I think in every aspect of football we were the better team. We passed the ball better, had better movement, they only kicked long balls, but it’s about putting the ball in the net and that’s what they did and that’s why they’re up there and we’re not.”

Photo: Action Images

Razor added 10:42 - Dec 1 Was it not a long (hoof) ball that set up the winning goal? Bob Peeters thinks they controlled 80% of the game---he had obviously been on the Warninks, just bitter that he lost. I have never seen our bench react in such a way in all my 40 years plus of watching the town,fantastic and so good to see. Lets keep the atmos for Saturday----Benty to get winner at Derby and the mighty blues to go TOP---am I dreaming!?

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Count_Arthur added 10:55 - Dec 1 I very much doubt MM reads these forums as he seems the sort who doesn't pay too much attention to the opinions of the press and fans on forums who (for the most part) don't know what we're talking about - and quite rightly so! But if Mick is reading this, or any of the players, can I just pass on the news that there seems to be a massive tide of optimism amongst us Tractor Boys & Girls at the moment. Since Mr Burley we barely dared to believe we'd leave this league again via the table, but for the first time, in a long time, we're feeling positive! So, I say again, THANK YOU to Mick, Terry, all the players and staff. So us usually discontented Town fans will try and keep up the Christmas spirit, we'll all smile and nod to fellow fans we see wearing the badge in our renewed sense of unity and confidence! If we get promotion, brilliant, but if we don't then hey, at least we're heading in the right direction and once again, thank you Mick!

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PJH added 12:04 - Dec 1 Well said Count_Arthur. We all owe a lot of thanks to MM TC and Staff and Players for what they have achieved and what they are aiming to achieve in the future. I think Joe Royle would have got us up if he had had a small amount to spend when Shefki got injured,otherwise I agree entirely with you. I think someone close to the players reads our posts judging by Chambo;s comment on SKY about Noel Hunt's arrival and the questions that were being raised on here.I think Chambo was pleased to see that we were still all there awaiting his fist pump adter his interview.

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westernblue added 00:48 - Dec 2 Bit late posting as I seem to have been celebrating on and off since final whistle at the valley. I think that critical posts rather miss the point. It was a good game, Charlton were a bit unlucky, but they didn't do enough on the day. As for town, the whole team put a phenomenal shift in, scored a superb goal, and shared in our delirium at the end. We can be proud of this squad - and how long ago was it when we could last say that. Critics who think we should be playing all other teams off the park as if they weren't there should think seriously about finding another sport, or perhaps supporting the arsenal.

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