FA Premiership/Charlton 2 Fulham 1: The fickle finger of the football fan has little respect for sentiment, but Alan Curbishley will not complain.

A winless October forced the Charlton manager to endure some bickering from fans dismayed at an inability to progress from last season's seventh place, exactly the position his side occupies this morning.

Curbishley steered his side to a third successive win and he can take particular satisfaction from the displays of three of his signings this year. Danny Murphy was instrumental in every one of his side's moves, and Talal El Karkouri and Jerome Thomas shared the goals. This is progress.

So, by contrast to earlier this season, this was a happy Valley. Buoyed by news of their club's increasingly secure Premiership status - reflected by plans to expand the stadium's capacity to 40,000 - the crowd exuded confidence. It seemed to be shared by the players, who started the more brightly and displayed fine control in their passing.

Charlton would not have long to wait for their lead. Murphy exchanged touches with Shaun Bartlett on the edge of Fulham's area, where the visiting defence allowed the South African striker time to send his cross into the six-yard box. Pape Bouba Diop's header did nothing more than graze the ball on to Thomas, who was on hand to stab home at Edwin Van der Sar's near post.

Sylvain Legwinski came closest to levelling the scores for Fulham, latching on to Steed Malbranque's nudged ball to unleash a shot Dean Kiely leapt to foil.

Malbranque and Murphy were at the heart of these attacks and more for their sides, with the England international again providing a fine dead-ball cross for Hermann Hreidarsson and Jon Fortune to trouble Fulham.

Fulham manager Chris Coleman set out in the second half with a more adventurous strategy. Urging his full-backs forward, he almost reaped an instant return. Leroy Rosenior showed his attacking talent with the first run of the half. Reaching the byline, he swung a cross over that only a vital intervention from Kiely kept away from Carlos Bocanegra.

Yet with Fulham chasing the game, Charlton hit back. Murphy twisted and teased Ian Pearce, forcing the centre-half to retreat into his area before curling his shot against the post.

Then Thomas took on Rosenior and the youngster took him down, yanking at a fistful of shirt. Murphy swept in the free-kick to El Karkouri, who beat McBride to the ball to head home.

Yet Fulham would not take defeat lightly. Andy Cole hit the side-netting and Bouba Diop hit the crossbar. Then Tomasz Radzinski struck, McBride's header having been cleared from the goal-line by Murphy into his path.

CHARLTON: Kiely, Young, El Karkouri, Fortune, Hreidarsson, Rommedahl (Konchesky 83), Kishishev, Holland, Murphy, Thomas (Euell 87), Bartlett (Jeffers 79). Subs Not Used: Andersen, Hughes. Booked: Kishishev. Goals: Thomas 27, El Karkouri 66.

FULHAM: Van der Sar, Rosenior, Rehman, Pearce, Bocanegra, Diop, Legwinski (John 73), Pembridge, Malbranque (Radzinski 63), Cole, McBride. Subs Not Used: Flitney, Volz, Knight. Booked: Diop, Rosenior. Goals: Radzinski 82.

Referee: S Bennett (Kent).