Cameron Jerome's late header ensured that Norwich City held off a Charlton Athletic fightback to claim a slender 3-2 victory away at The Valley in the Championship this evening.
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Norwich were the first side to carve out a chance when Steven Whittaker picked out Bradley Johnson, who turned on the volley only to see his shot fly just past the post.
The visitors made use of their second chance to move in front as Lewis Grabban found Jonny Howson in space, and he made no mistake with a smart finish low across the face of goal into the far corner.
Nathan Redmond passed up a decent attempt to push Norwich into a two-goal lead with 22 minutes played, as he shot straight into the arms of Marko Dmitrovic after he was picked out by Whittaker.
Norwich continued to create throughout the first period and they should have gone 2-0 up just before half time, only for Gary Hooper's enterprise to be wasted by Johnson, who crashed over the bar without testing Dmitrovic.
City finally found a second goal right on the stroke of half time, when Grabban collected from Johnson outside of the area, before rifling a standout finish high into the centre of goal.
With the second half limited to early chances, Charlton made the most of their big opportunity when Tony Watt sent a shot into the bottom-right corner following Igor Vetokele's knockdown to make it 2-1.
Vetokele's name was hot on the Charlton fans' lips just six minutes later as he pulled the hosts level, having profited from Callum Harriott's original attempt to convert into the bottom-right corner.
Norwich's Whittaker tried his utmost to put the away side back ahead in a quick flurry of chances, but Grabban could only head his cross into the path of Charlton stopper Dmitrovic.
With the game seemingly headed for a draw, Jerome secured a memorable win for the Canaries with an adroit header from Wes Hoolahan's cross with just seven minutes remaining.
Christopher Dodd
