Charlton squandered a golden chance to reach the last eight of the League Cup for their first time in their history as resurgent Rovers struck three times in the final 15 minutes to complete a sensational comeback win.
The big team news saw Dean Kiely back in the Charlton starting line-up for the first time this season. The Irish stopper, who had not figured since the final day of last season, came in between the posts as Curbishley made three changes from Saturday's miserable Premiership defeat at Aston Villa. Norway international Thomas Myhre supplied the goalkeeping back-up on the bench, even though Andersen had starred in the dramatic shoot-out success over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Danny Murphy, who was dropped to the bench at Villa Park on Saturday, regained his place at the expense of Matt Holland and there was also a surprise start on the right-hand side for Jonatan Johansson as Jerome Thomas made way. For large portions of the game Charlton, particularly in the form of their midfield trio of Murphy, Radostin Kishishev and Alexei Smertin, were simply too good and too composed for the visitors.
Darren Ambrose fired the Addicks in front seven minutes before the break with his third goal of the season after Murphy showed his class slipping a pass through to Johansson who deftly touched it on for Ambrose to smash home a drive from 12 yards out. Murphy added a second soon after the restart when a clearance towards Robbie Savage was blocked by Murphy and the midfielder showed neat composure seizing on the half chance to dink the ball around the stranded figure of Brad Friedel to double the lead.
The boss had wanted something to defend and they had it with interest but they proved incapable of holding on to even a two-goal cushion as the backline were left dazed and confused after 15 minutes of mayhem. Luke Young looked to have picked up a knock and was replaced by Jonathan Spector 20 minutes from time. Curbishley also replaced Johansson with Bryan Hughes.
Mark Hughes sent on Shefki Kuqi for the ineffectual Brett Emerton in an attempt to get back in the game and the Finnish striker did just that 15 minutes from time. Craig Bellamy slid the ball through to Kuqi who evaded El Karkouri's stumbling challenge and left the Moroccan on the turf before prodding a shot past Kiely to reduce the deficit to a single goal.
Five minutes later and Hughes' other substitute, David Thompson, claimed a dramatic and unexpected equaliser, slamming home a spectacular volley from all of 30 yards that seared past a full-length Kiely after the keeper’s mishit clearance had been mis-controlled by Kishishev.
Then five minutes later El Karkouri was caught dwelling on the ball at the edge of his own box and Morten Gamst Pedersen sauntered into space before sliding the ball into the path of David Bentley who rolled home from the edge of the area to claim an unexpected win. The boos at the end told the story of Charlton’s increasing woes.