Sheffield Wednesday suffered their fifth defeat of the season as Charlton leapfrogged them to move into the play-off positions with a 1-0 win.
Wednesday travelled to London without captain Darren Purse and right-back Jon Otsemobor, both due to suspension and so fielded a patched up defence with Spurr playing at centre-half and Buxton reverting to right-back. Goalkeeper Nicky Weaver was made stand-in skipper while winger Gary Teale and striker Neil Mellor both returned to the starting eleven after impressive displays as substitutes last weekend.
Charlton named an unchanged side from the one that had won at Carlisle last Saturday meaning that ex-Owls striker Akpo Sodje had to settle for a place on the bench.
After an early exchange of corners Charlton went close when Weaver tipped a fine volley from Fry round his post and the Owls stopper then did the same to deny Jackson as the hosts made a promising start. Wednesday had a chance of their own in the first twenty minutes as Tudgay forced Addicks keeper Elliott to concede a corner but from Charlton’s next attack of note the visitors fell behind.
A half cleared corner came to Wagstaff and although the midfielder saw his first strike blocked he made no mistake at the second attempt, beating Weaver with a low drive.
Wagstaff was proving to be a thorn in the Owls side and Weaver had to be alert to tip over another strike from the wide midfielder on the half-hour mark as the Londoners looked to take control. With around ten minutes to go to the interval the Owls saw penalty waved away as Buxton low centre was met by Tudgay whose strike appeared to be blocked by the hand of Gary Doherty.
Wednesday continued to apply some pressure as half-time approached and Mellor fired agonisingly wide after a poor kick by Elliot.
A succession of corners came to nothing as the home side started the second half with purpose. With half an hour remaining Irvine sent on Johnson for the ineffective Teale and Morrison replaced Tudgay ten minutes later.
The Owls huffed and puffed and generally had a better footing in the game in the second half but Charlton could have made the game safe with around fifteen minutes remaining as Benson placed substitute Martin’s cross over the bar.
Johnson’s pace had given the visitors a lift and his run and cross carved out a good opportunity for Mellor in the last ten minutes but last weekend’s goal scorer could only head wide. A late free-kick offered hope to the vociferous travelling support but Jones fired wildly off target and the Addicks saw out four minutes of injury time to condemn the Owls to their first league defeat in six games.
Despite still boasting an impressive defensive record the Owls have now lost more than a third of their league games and are struggling to make the most of the attacking players they have at their disposal with the opposition often carving out more goal scoring opportunities.
Wednesday have now slipped to 7th position in the League One table, just three points ahead of Brentford in 15th but only two points behind second placed Huddersfield. Wednesday face the in form Terriers in an important Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough on Tuesday.