De la Cruz scores first for Villa

Aston Villa 2 Charlton 0

De la Cruz - signed from Hibernian for £2 million in the summer - struck midway through the second half and then Moore sealed the victory six minutes from time. Villa, operating a 3-5-2 system with Johnsen sitting just in front of the defence, showed plenty of hustle and bustle in the early stages. Angel was well off-target with an ambitious header from the edge of the penalty area following a cross by Ulises de la Cruz.

However, the Colombia international produced the first testing moment of the game with Dean Kiely forced to turn his low shot around the post after Jlloyd Samuel had laid the ball into his path just inside the Charlton area. Gareth Barry was on the receiving end of a heavy challenge from Chris Bart-Williams, but the Charlton midfielder escaped with a ticking-off from referee Graham Poll. Charlton produced the best move to date after 35 minutes and it needed a good low save to deny Claus Jensen after he had combined well with Mathias Svensson and Jason Euell, but Villa quickly retaliated and Kiely pulled off a fine save away to his right to keep out a Staunton header from an in-swinging Barry free kick. Then Olof Mellberg stole in at the far post to get on the end of an in-swinging free-kick from Kinsella while under pressure from Euell only for his header to be deflected.