Goals from Darren Fletcher, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave United their second win of the season at the expense of Charlton Athletic.

The second-half strikes ruined Iain Dowie's first home game in charge of the Addicks and kept United on top of the Premiership table. A fluid attacking performance from United could have yielded plenty more goals, and made a mockery of pre-match trepidation fuelled by the absence of Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes.

Skipper Gary Neville was also absent, having failed to recover from his persistent calf injury in time to lead his side and forcing Sir Alex Ferguson to field a back four of Brown, Silvestre, Ferdinand and Evra.

The high-profile absence of Rooney and Scholes prompted the inclusion of Darren Fletcher and Ji-sung Park, while new signing Michael Carrick was a surprising - yet highly welcomed - face on the United bench. Charlton themselves were hit by a suspension, with new signing Djimi Traore replaced by Jonathan Fortune in defence.

On a rain-sodden pitch and with the home contingent audibly buoyed by the absence of Rooney and Scholes, United's early game plan was to remain neat and tidy. When it did come, in the 22nd minute, the Reds' first chance fell to Ji-sung Park, who rose well to head Wes Brown's cross powerfully wide. Moments later the South Korean was in the thick of the action again, this time drawing a solid save from Scott Carson in the Addicks goal after the home defence went AWOL.

United were clearly in the ascendancy, and they were within a whisker of moving into the lead just two minutes later. After