Joey Barton is going the right way to redeeming himself with City's supporters after firing home a brilliant match-winner for Manchester City at Eastlands.
It is only two weeks since Barton stunned City officials by slapping in a transfer request, a move that earned a stinging riposte during the recent home win over Newcastle.
But with Barton admitting he may have acted hastily, the ire has disappeared and the Blues fans were chanting his name in glee again when he latched onto Kiki Musampa's lay-off and sent a brutal 30-yard strike flashing past Charlton keeper Thomas Myhre.
The effort allowed City to hold off a late rally from the visitors after Marcus Bent had pulled them back into a contest which erupted with four goals in 21 thrilling minutes at the start of the second period.
The first half in contrast could best be described as cagey, with City supplying most of the sporadic attacking threat and well on top in terms of possession.
A trawl through the record books takes you back to April 2005 for the last of Richard Dunne's three previous strikes for City.
But none of the Irishman's other efforts could have been better hit than the one he rasped home midway through the half.
Opener
Barton, beginning an inspirational man-of-the-match performance, was the supplier, swinging over an excellent cross which Hermann Hreidarsson half cleared straight to Dunne, who promptly smashed a volley into the net through a crowded area.
Aside from a curling Musampa free-kick which flew over the area and almost crept in at the far post, Dunne's effort was about the only thing worth talking about during the opening period.
How things changed after the break though, with four goals in 21 spellbinding minutes, each one a story of its own.
First there was Darren Bent clinically dispatching his 16th goal of the season to enhance his World Cup claims after Talal El Karkouri had found him 12 yards out with a superb defence-splitting pass.
Almost immediately, City regained the initiative through Georgios Samaras, who became the second most expensive player in the club's history behind Nicolas Anelka when Pearce spent '6million luring him from Heerenveen last month.
First goal
Just 20, the Greek-born youngster still has much to learn but at 6ft 3in, Samaras' height is a clear advantage and when Barton chipped over an excellent cross, the striker easily outjumped Hreidarsson to nod home his first City goal.
Then came the Barton piledriver which ultimately proved to be the match-winner.
Less than a fortnight after his own impetuosity got the better of him in contract negotiations he felt were not being conducted to his satisfaction, Barton was able to gleefully race to the fans who had jeered him clutching his badge and receiving their acclaim.
It should have been game over for the hosts. Instead, Marcus Bent nodded Charlton back into the contest with a firm header after referee Mike Dean had waved play on instead of awarding City a free-kick for an incident that occurred long before Radostin Kishishev delivered the fateful cross.
Charlton might have snatched an undeserved draw had David James not produced a superb low save in stoppage time to deny El Karkouri but City were able to hold on.
Have your say on the match
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Sometime you play well and lose. Today, I thought we were pretty shaky but managed the win.
What a game for the neutrals. Joey cant pass a ball, can't shoot or put in a cross. Well most of the time eh lads. Get behind our team, Joey is our heart-beat and he is improving every game. Too bad for Trev and Andy but croft, BWP and Ish are all impatiently waiting for their chance. Great game lads.
great second half very nerve racking tho but a good win..! and who sud get us that winning goal..? yes joey Barton but wat a goal..!! goal of season..?? maybe.The team played well just need to carry on and NOT LOSE,Jamo great save at the end..England no.1 surely..!!!! (Dnt go SP..!!!)
Three very good goals from CITY.an exciting 2nd half and a deserved win.
But bad news with 2 injuries to Tricky Trev(Cheek bone)and King Cole (Cartilage
Joey Barton showed why CITY should keep him, as I have said before its what Joey does on the field that really matters.
Sign a new contract and get it all behind us.
Well played City good team effort considering all the injuries and players playing out of position!! a good 3 points pity re injuries.
I have put alot of thought into the Joey fiasco. I think this whole point of it was to get himself into the spot-light. He has definite chance of going to Germany now that he's being watched so closely. MOM from Joey, good to hear the fans are cheering him cuz judged by the majority of "fans" on this site, he is never to be forgiven. Which is absolute nonsense, he is a cracking player...i've said it b4 and I'll say it again a future skipper in the making.
today musampa looked like the centre midfield role is his position samaras was class good for him to get his first goal for city great display all round well done city!.CTID
pretty shaky win all in all. We really are not looking as compact and hard to score against as we did at the beginning of the season. Must do better if we want to get to last season's position or even europe.
well said blue tiger
Good result - 6 points and 8 goals against them this season - but we shouldn't have been left hanging on at the end. So many of the goals against us have been caused by one or other of our central defenders being put into one against one situations - and it simply shouldn't be happening - where is the cover!! Good debut for Micah, Albert looking smoother, and "Feed the greek and he will score!". Not too bad though - should have been 3-2. A diabolical refereeing decision for their second goal. What on earth is going in the south stand btw?? Looks like the stewards are inciting the crowd from where I sit in the Kip. They are a liability - we should get people in who have the interests of the club at heart.
What a game great goal by Barton no more than we deserved thought we were sh*t at the back today glad to see the new lad get on the score board. Alls I need to say is get a new contract signed Barton and Pearce for gods sake leave that England job for anyone else who wants it, we want you right here at the blue camp. PB
Today was the quietest eastlands match ever. I had an excuse as i was that doped up on painkillers i was barely awake (shouldnt even had been there - only had surgery last week, but city do this to me!! couldnt miss a home match), but what was everyone elses excuse. No chants even got going.. ok it was a pretty boring game (first half esp) and the weather was dire, but cmon, lets shout a bit (together) - it was so quiet i could hear joey barton swearing at his team mates! (At least he does talk to em though - skiper distin doesn't utter a word)
oh and why oh why did we not put Croft on instead of Sibierski? I know we won and everything, but seriously, Crofty would've put balls in for Samaras instead of losing the ball on the touchline all the time like Sibierski.
Well, City can get rid of the "Man of the Match" award. The sycophantic Barton supporters will just keep voting for him. I bet he will win the award even if he doesn't play. He doesn't want to be at City and should go. So should Stuart Pearce. He has now admitted that he would consider the England job. That means to me that he just sees City as a stepping stone. Even if the England job goes elswhere we will just be waiting for a "better" job to be available for SP to walk out.
Great game and supurb performance from the whole team,All we need now is the consistancy and try to draw our away games.
Great to score 3 goals, but the central defence is becoming a bit of a liability.
Not a particularly good 1st half, with Charlton showing nothing. 2nd half was very exciting. We derserved it in the end and should have been leading more comfortably when DJ made an important save.
AR, KM, AC and GS the players who bring some good football into the team. JB was not very good up until his cross for the 2-1 by GS; after that he played like he can and should be (what a great 3rd goal!) MR with a nice debut. Funny how he takes his throw-ins.
Great win for the lads, a few heart stopping moments at the end there. Maybe its me but does anyone else think that samaras is a bit of a donkey. He loses control of the ball to easily and he seems to lack pace for a young man.I would like to see him put his body on the line a bit more and chase down the defenders more often. I really hope he proves me wrong and has a great career at city, only time will tell. Hope sinclair and cole get better soon, a massive blow to any euro chances we hoped for.
Providing samaras can receive the crosses especially from Reira, he could prove a real gem.Great in the air.
Concerned with having the second worse defensive record after the mighty Sunderland. Me thinks we need a quality centre half next to Distin!
I only saw the second half (and apparently didn't miss much), but i thought it was a decent match. I can't remember that many games where we've had the same back four so its unsurprising that we concede so many. Micah looks a good athlete, but he certainly isn't a right-back - when Charlton were hoofing long balls up the left side in the second half he was constantly drifting over to the middle. I know he plays centre-half for the reserves so no blame on him, but we need Mills back asap as i don't think we seen anyone replace him effectively. Nice goal and cross for Samaras to score from Joey, but half of what he does is still pants (including clutching the badge). Riera has great skills and awareness, but seems a bit slow (i like the look of him though). I think Samaras is going to be a top player for us and find a previous comment that he lacks pace a bit odd as he seems very quick for someone who's 6'3. Hope Reyna comes back soon and fingers crossed for Tricky. All in all good stuff, oh and probably the two most inept linesmen i've ever seen. Do they actually get paid for that???
Bob you seem like a utd fan to me
Bob Fasoli,
Blimey mate, I thought I liked a moan, until you came along! Joey Barton was voted Man of the Match because he was, erm, Man of the Match! The best player on the field, just shading out Riera, who had his best game in a Blue shirt. As for Pearce, the only job he is liable to leave us for is the England one, and you can hardly expect someone not to want to manage their country. As to other jobs, well he's already dismissed talk of going to Newcastle, saying he can hardly preach loyalty to the likes of Barton if he's not prepared to show loyalty himself. The man's a class act! Had to laugh after the game though when he described Samaras as "raw". Raw? I've seen bits of gazelle hanging out of lion's mouths that were more well done, but what a header!
Joeys a liabilty eh? yesterday Barton showed all you fans that have never liked him what a player he is. I have never had any doubts about joey since his debut, possible future captain.
CTID
Bartons agent, re: Croft, the guy will be a free agent in the summer and could have signed a pre contract in January last year and the same this year but there has been no interest from any club I will be amazed if we give him an extension, but I wish him the best of luck.
a fair result in the end,and at the end of the day 3 points,and more importantly, only 2 points away from Bolton in 6th place,although the performance yesterday wasn't great (didn't get the ball forward quick enough when we could) 2nd Charlton goal should never have been (note to ed,it wasn't a free-kick City should have had but a throw in was given to City by the assistant ref,but Mike Dean over-ruled him,and watching MOTD last night,it clearly came off the CHarlton player not Dunne,good job it didn't cost us 3 points in the end)Samaras looks like he will become a star of the Premiership, gave the Charlton defence problems from the minute he came on,and is just hwat we have been looking for, a forward who can get on the end of crosses from the wing. Barton needs to be told not to take any more set pieces,his free-kicks are just laughable, he needs to take some lessons from Kiki,who showed him how it should be done and nearly scored. Great goal by Joey,though where that shot came from is a mystery, must have been a fluke!! thought SP did the right thing bringing Sibierski on not Croft, Sibs got back and helped Richards on the right (something Croft wouldn't have done)and he helped out at corners/set pieces with his height against a tall CHarlton attack. As for defence,yes we did let in 2 sloppy goals, but when you consider we had a right back at left back(Sommeil) and a 17 year old who is used to playing central midfield and sometimes centre back,its not that suprising. WHen you consider that Bolton drew,Wigan lost,Spurs drew,Arsenal drew of the teams above us, 3 points puts us back in with a shout.