Sunderland 1 Charlton 3
The home side contributed to their own downfall with all three of the visitors goals being own goals gifting Charlton their first victory at the Stadium of Light.
Charlton opened the scoring on 24 minutes when Mark Fish's weak shot deflected off the unlucky Stephen Wright and past Thomas Sorensen into the net.
Things got worse for the home side five minutes later with Michael Proctor inadvertently firing into his own net after Sorensen had kept out Chris Powell's shot.
Just when things could not look to get any worse for Sunderland and Proctor in particular Charlton added to their lead in the 32nd minute with the young striker again finding the net at the wrong end.
Claus Jensen's corner deflected off Proctor and past Sorensen to cap a crazy eight minutes for the home side.
Sunderland came out fighting in the second half to regain some pride and Kevin Phillips grabbed a late consolation on 81 minutes from the penalty spot after Tore Andre Flo had been fouled.
The defeat coupled with West Brom's shock win at Manchester City saw Sunderland slide to the bottom of the table to complete a miserable day for Howard Wilkinson's troops.
