Charlton Athletic 2
Racon 31, Bailey 68

Argyle 0

ARGYLE'S players and management held an impromptu team meeting following a defeat by the Championship's bottom-placed club, in which they engaged in what politicians like to call a full and frank exchange of opinions.

Manager and players emerged to declare that the clear-the-air meeting had been both necessary and productive, so it may yet be that events at the Valley - off the field - will prove the third and most crucial turning-point of the Pilgrims' season.

On it, they were well in control of the game until 15 minutes from half-time when Charlton were awarded a corner from which Therry Racon opened the scoring.

The Pilgrims were obviously disturbed by what, at first sight, appeared to be a totally random decision by linesman Chris Francis in favour of the home side.

So much so, that they failed to mark up properly and two players were booked for disputing Francis's judgment, which, after studies of the replays appeared to be sound.

Thereafter, Argyle's fragile confidence kicked in and, from being unflappable and composed in search of their first win of the year, they looked a fatally wounded side.

Picking up the pieces of the Pilgrims' broken spirit after this defeat is going to be a difficult task for Paul Sturrock but it is a task that he is both relishing and capable of achieving.

Referee Trevor Kettle made a conversely erroneous decision in the opening stages of the second half when he awarded Charlton a penaltyfor handball, when, unless Luke Summerfield has a previously unrevealed vestigiallimb on his chest, there was no hand anywhere near any ball.

Thankfully, Romain Larrieu saved Nicky Bailey's spot-kick - an event not quite as rare as Haley's Comet.

Bailey recovered his own blushes with a neat finish midway through the second half to give recovering Charlton a second successive home victory.

The luckless Luggy had made three personnel changes to the side beaten 3-0 at home to Derby County seven days earlier, as well as switching around several positions.

With Mat Kouo-Doumbe suspended after accumulating five yellow cards, and Davids McNamee and Gray injured, the vacant right-back slot was filled by captain Karl Duguid.

The skipper's central midfield slot was filled by Summerfield, while Paul Gallagher's elevation from the engine room to partner Jamie Mackie in attack meant a recall for Chris Clark on the right wing, with Alan Judge switching to the left.

Behind him, Chris Barker was recalled to full-back instead of Gary Sawyer, who dropped to the substitutes' bench alongside the lesser-spotted Jim Paterson.

Charlton, 1-0 victors over Crystal Palace in their previous home game, recalled captain Mark Hudson to the centre of defence, and the previously suspended Kelly Youga to its left flank. Veteran Matt Holland and Grant Basey were the men to make way.

Gallagher was to the fore straight away, bringing down Krisztián Timar's free-kick from deep and sweetly switching foot from right to left to give himself a clear shot at goal. The execution failed to match the set-up, however.

Apart from a free-kick similar to the one that Robert Earnshaw scored from at Forest recently, Argyle enjoyed an untroubled opening against clearly unconfident hosts, and Judge 's quick shot from Barker's throw forced goalkeeper Rob Elliott into a hurried save.

Elliott needed to be at his best again just after a quarter of an hour, when, from a similar position to Judge's, Gallagher broke through to fire off a shot that was bound for the opposite corner until the Addicks' goalkeeper snaked out a hand to divert the ball for a corner.

With Gallagher hitting the bar and Argyle continuing to make the running, Charlton's raids forward were fitful and unproductive. Nevertheless, the Pilgrims' back line had to remain sharp, and were indebted to Timár for a block on Chris Dickson's shot as the Athletic striker dawdled fatally.

The home striker was more decisive moments later, and actually managed to get a shot off that had Larrieu extending himself for the first time. Routine stuff, though, for a man in the form of his life.

The corner that led to Charlton's opener came when Barker and Judge showed Tom Soares into a blind alley on the Charlton right.

The ball dribbled away for what many observers thought was a goal-kick. Francis lifted his flag, but seemed initially to decline to indicate for which side.Receiving no help from Kettle, he made what did not appear to be the most confident of decisions.

Inevitably, Racon scored from the resulting kick. Equally inevitably, Larrieu and Duguid were yellow-carded for pointing out to Kettle the perceived officiating blunder, and Larrieu was so incensed that he continued to gripe to such an extent that he came precious close to being sent off.

Argyle replaced Clark with Fallon at half-time, the Kiwi taking his place up front and Mackie dropping to left side of midfield, Judge switching flanks.

Charlton came out, buzzing, though, and the Pilgrims' defence was as overworked in the opening stages of the second period as it had been underused in the first.

Within five minutes, the pressure told as Summerfield was adjudged to have handled the ball on the edge of his penalty area.

The official was in a sizeable minority. There were no appeals - apart from a few of the most optimistic home supporters - for anything, and Kettle's decision was greeted by much shrugging of shoulders from players of both sides.

Larrieu guessed right and got enough on Bailey's penalty to keep the ball out.

Argyle had clearly decided to go gung-ho, with the inevitable corollary that they left themselves exposed at the back more than they would have liked.

Thus Charlton were able to get themselves in dangerous positions more often than they had done in the opening 45 minutes, and only some desperate defending and some woeful finishing by Dickson and Tresor Kandol kept the margin to one.

The Addicks eventually profited when Bailey was on the end of a swift break, controlling the ball well to take it around Larrieu in one move and slotting it home in the next.

Luggy's response was to go even more attacking, with Mackie supplementing Fallon and Gallagher up front.

The move saw plenty of Pilgrims' activity in the Charlton defensive third, but Charlton knew that all they had to do was hold out, and they managed that without too much fuss.

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): 21 Rob Elliott; 29 Graeme Murty, 6 Mark Hudson (gk), 12 Darren Ward, 3 Kelly Youga; 38 Tom Soares, 14 Matthew Spring, 20 Therry Racon, 4 Nick Bailey; 17 Chris Dickson (37 Deon Burton 84), 36 Tresor Kandol. Substitutes (not used): 7 Jonjo Shelvey, 8 Matt Holland, 18 Lloyd Sam, 35 Darren Randolph (gk).

Booked: Dickson 73, Burton 90, Soares 90.

Argyle (4-4-2): 1 Romain Larrieu; 2 Karl Duguid (capt), 5 Krisztián Timár, 22 Craig Cathcart, 15 Chris Barker; 6 Chris Clark (14 Rory Fallon half-time), 20 Luke Summerfield (3 Jim Paterson 73), 4 Simon Walton, 23 Alan Judge; 11 Paul Gallagher, 25 Jamie Mackie.Substitutes (not used): 9 Steve MacLean, 17 Craig Noone, 18 Gary Sawyer.

Booked: Larrieu 31, Duguid 32, Gallagher 41.

Referee: Trevor Kettle (Rutland).

Attendance: 21,876 (1,200 away est.).