"Hermann woke up and felt really bad and couldn't train with us," said Charlton manager Alan Curbishley.
"But he got up for lunch and felt better and declared himself fit at 5pm.
"We had been practising the set-piece all week in training and Di Canio couldn't get the ball off the ground.
"He took seven or eight corners and then we had to give up because they weren't going where we wanted them to go.
"I didn't think we'd be in the top seven after eight or nine games and it has just been a case of getting back to basics," added the Charlton manager.
"We had a team chasing us for the first time in a while and I thought when we didn't finish them off it might cost us the game.
"But you've got to be realistic when you start looking at league positions. You've just got to get through it so this was a real bonus."