CHARLTON manager Alan Pardew confessed he sacrificed striker Svetoslav Todorov from the starting line-up against Crystal Palace in favour of tightening up a side that had leaked seven goals in their previous two games.

Todorov responded by coming off the bench to score the only goal of the game as the Addicks beat their South London neighbours 1-0 on Saturday.

Pardew said: “After the last couple of results we had to tighten up and Toddy was sacrificed. The result was that defensively we were much stronger against Palace.

“I was delighted that Toddy came on and scored the winner and nobody was more pleased than him. I explained to him afterwards that because of our abundance of midfield players and strikers, we’re going to sacrifice people.

“I sacrificed Jerome Thomas on Saturday and I may have to sacrifice Andy Reid and Darren Ambrose. We have to make sure that we have enough on the pitch to deal with tough away games like the Palace match.”

Pardew praised his under-fire defence and said: “We played a bit narrow and were not quite as open as we have been.

“That bit of experience that Danny Mills and Chris Powell brought to the side made a difference. Mind you, I had words with Danny at half-time because there were times he was a bit too clever and got himself into a mess.

“In the second half he was much better.

“ We came here and did a job to get our first away win.”