The rest of the footballing world might have been surprised but The Valley braced itself for yet more of the same.
Each year, Charlton Athletic choose to fall to a different lower league side in the opening round of the League Cup and this year Hartlepool seemed to be rewarded for their mammoth journey by taking their turn to claim a south east London scalp.
As it was their dreams lasted just two minutes before Lloyd Sam was dragged to the ground in the area, Jonatan Johansson slid home the penalty and equality was returned.
From high to low Hartlepool never recovered and eventually found themselves swept away.
Darren Bent, who has shown himself gleefully incapable of stopping scoring so far this season, came on at the break for the injured Shaun Bartlett and celebrated by nodding home a header with a little more than 15 minutes remaining to give the home side the lead.
Seven minutes later and Hartlepool's Richie Humphreys somehow avoided a red card when he dragged Bent back from another forward surge only to see debutant Jay Bothroyd settle himself to take the free-kick.
From all of 35 yards Bothroyd's rocket flew past poor Dimitrios Konstantopoulos in the visiting goal and blasted Charlton through to a third round draw which, thanks to a sluggish start and a defensive lapse, they threatened to miss out on once more.
For Alan Curbishley it was a moment of relief after a career littered with a string of cup disasters.
For Hartlepool boss Martin Scott it was a result to forget but a night to be proud of players who had given their all chasing a result that, until reasonably late in the game, was still theirs for the taking.