In a match which yielded few clear-cut chances, it was the substitute Jamie Cureton who caused problems for the Charlton Athletic  defence late on, chasing a long ball over the top. He squeezed a shot between Miguel Llera and Gary Doherty, the Charlton centre-back pairing, forcing a fine save from Rob Elliot in the away goal.

Cureton was quickest to react to the loose ball and, in the rush to reach the rebound, the Spaniard Llera brought down the former Norwich striker. Harley made no mistake from 12 yards to inflict a second consecutive Leaguevdefeat on Charlton. Until that point, the game had seemed destined to end goalless. The visitors had the better of the first 15 minutes with Lee Martin denied by the Exeter goalkeeper Paul Jones following a fine surge into the box. Exeter threatened soon after when a Liam Sercombe effort from 20 yards required Elliot to get down low to his left-hand side to beat the ball away. Sercombe almost put the home side in front from a similar position but flashed his shot just wide with the keeper well beaten.Ten minutes later, the Addicks winger Kyel Reid shot straight at the keeper after neat work by Pawel Abbott on the left before Reid spurned the rebound as he dragged his shot well wide. Moments later Reid's cross from the left forced Jones into action once more as he tipped the goal-bound effort around the post. Early in the second half the Addicks did have the ball in the back of the net; following a long throw in to the home side's box, the striker Abbott scrambled the ball home from six yards but it was ruled out for handball. Exeter nearly went in front themselves as Sercombe, who looked the most likely scorer for the home side, threatened to break the deadlock but again he shot past the right-hand post with Elliot at full stretch. Paul Tisdale's team pressed for a winner and, despite being down to 10 men for the last few minutes due to an injury to their captain Steve Tully, they caught the visitors' defence napping to record a win which sees them climb to 14th in League One. 

Exeter City 1 Charlton Athletic 0. Saturday 4 September 2010.

Ref: David Phillips

Att: 5743 with 635 away fans.

BBC match report –

Exeter grabbed their first win of the season thanks to Ryan Harley's injury-time penalty against Charlton.

Grecians striker Jamie Cureton was fouled by Charlton goalkeeper Rob Elliot and Harley stepped up to score his fifth goal of the campaign.

In a tightly contested match, Exeter's Liam Sercombe went closest with a 25-yard shot which flew just wide.

Charlton's Lee Martin shot narrowly wide late on but could not keep them from a second league loss this season.

Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale told BBC Radio Devon: 

"I think we deserved the win and I'm very pleased for a lot of people that have been through a lot the last two weeks.

"We played with huge intensity in our game and as much as it was arguably a debatable penalty, I think we deserved it.

"A year ago I'm not sure that we'd have won that game, but we've come on as a team since then."

Charlton boss Phil Parkinson told BBC London 94.9:
"He has cost us a point today and to say I'm livid is an understatement. I don't think the ref was sure it was a pen and where the ball ended up indicated to me that our player got a touch on the ball.

"It was a harsh decision, but we should have dealt with the ball over the top.

"In patches we created opportunities but it was just patches and didn't see enough quality today."