Charlton find cutting edge to see off West Ham

Arsenal's Mathieu Flamini (L) and Charlton's Shaun Bartlett battle for the ball during their premiership match at The Valley, December 26. Bartlett scored his first goal of the season to help Charlton end their dismal recent form with a 2-0 win over London rivals West Ham at The Valley.

Shaun Bartlett scored his first goal of the season to help Charlton end their dismal recent form with a 2-0 win over London rivals West Ham at The Valley.

South Africa striker Bartlett gave his side the lead and Darren Bent added to his growing reputation with a well-taken second as Charlton halted a run of eight defeats from their last nine matches.

Charlton manager Alan Curbishley has been at a loss to explain his side's struggles in the last few months, but they finally found some fluency to secure only their third home Premiership win of the season.

West Ham contributed richly to an entertaining capital derby Saturday but defeat completed a miserable Christmas for Alan Pardew's side, who are now without a win in four matches.

Matthew Etherington brought Thomas Myhre into action for the first time after 11 minutes with a low drive that the Charlton goalkeeper alertly pushed wide for a corner.

Charlton had another escape immediately after that when Myhre dropped Etherington's corner and Jeremie Aliadiere laid the ball back to Nigel Reo-Coker.

The West Ham captain volleyed past Myhre but Hermann Hreidarsson was able to scramble clear from his own goal-line.

West Ham had a complete stranglehold on the game in the early stages but were made to pay for not making that dominance count in the 21st minute as Charlton's strikers combined to devastating effect.

Darren Bent beat Etherington and whipped in a low cross from the right that evaded the West Ham defence and found Bartlett at the far post.

The South African slid in and met the ball perfectly to direct it in off the underside of Roy Carroll's crossbar.

Visibly lifted by that goal Charlton surged forward and Dennis Rommedahl was only denied by a superb stop from Carroll as the Northern Ireland international turned his skidding strike around a post.

But the East Londoners managed to work their way back into the match and created two good chances to draw level before the interval.

First a fine interchange of passes between Etherington and Reo-Coker cut Charlton's defence open and presented Shaun Newton with a glorious chance, but the former Charlton winger drove his shot straight at Myhre.

Then Marlon Harewood was granted acres of space in the Charlton penalty area but was off-target with an acrobatic bicycle kick when he had time to control the ball before shooting.

It took an excellent stop by Carroll to keep his side in the game on the stroke of half-time.

Rommedahl picked out Bartlett and the striker seemed certain to score until Carroll stuck out a leg to deflect his shot away.

Charlton were unfortunate not to increase their lead five minutes after half-time when Rommedahl's shot deflected off Anton Ferdinand and struck a post with Carroll well beaten.

But Curbishley's side have relied on Bent for most of their goals this season and the 3 million pounds pre-season signing from Ipswich was on the score-sheet again in the 63rd minute.

Bartlett's lay-off to Chris Powell gave the full-back time to cross and he delivered a perfect ball into Bent, who powered a downwards header past Carroll for his 12th goal of the season.

West Ham should have scored a consolation in the final minutes but substitute Yossi Benayoun dragged his shot wide.