Manager Neil Warnock saluted the impact of Craig Beattie on Crystal Palace's season after the on-loan striker's goal settled the London derby against Charlton.
Beattie injected some Premier League quality into a typically frenetic Championship clash as Palace beat their fierce rivals for the first time in 13 years.
The Scotland international, making his home debut after joining on a month's loan from West Brom last week, hit the crossbar in the first half but made no mistake in the second period with a superb header to lift Palace out of the bottom three.
"He has given us something over the last two games," said Warnock, who is without regular strikers Alan Lee and James Scowcroft through injury.
"He only came in on Thursday, had one session on Friday and then played out of his skin in the draw at Ipswich as well, and continued tonight.
"We want to attack, we want to have an atmosphere and it was a great derby. It's good for the fans and it will be great to be a Palace fan tonight.
"It works well for both of us. He needs some games and he's come in at the right time for us. We are playing 20 or 30 yards further up the pitch now and getting a lot more of the ball. It's been a great two weeks for us.
"(West Brom boss) Tony Mowbray has been great to let us have him - you don't get Premier League strikers very often and we're delighted. Hopefully we can have him for the three months but just one thing at a time."
Beattie's moment came in the 63rd minute when Ben Watson floated over a long, curling cross which the bustling striker met with a perfect cushioned header back past Nicky Weaver.
Charlton manager Alan Pardew threw on three attackers in Svetoslav Todorov, Andy Gray and Zheng Zhi but it was Palace who nearly scored again when Jose Fonte hit the crossbar with a header.
Charlton have now taken just four points from their last six games to lie well off the promotion pace and leave Pardew scratching his head.
"It was a real derby with no quarter given," said Pardew, who was given a vote of confidence from the board before the game.
"We had chances but the final ball just wasn't there to give us a lift and I thought their goal was offside, so that was disappointing.
"The boys are fully committed but I'm looking at one or two and thinking I need to give other people a chance.
"We are still above Palace but we are falling behind the pace now and we need to put a little run together, otherwise we could find ourselves in trouble."