*Villa Cruz past Charlton*

Ulises de la Cruz and Stefan Moore ended Aston Villa’s poor goalscoring run in the Premiership to condemn Charlton to defeat.

De la Cruz broke the deadlock and netted his first goal for the club after 70 minutes.

He found himself in space on the right-hand side of the area and fired a low right-foot shot into the bottom left of Dean Kiely’s goal.

Villa then stepped up a gear and 10 minutes later it was 2-0 thanks to England youth international Stefan Moore.

Moore, one of the most promising of Villa’s young talents, created and scored the goal himself, collecting the ball in midfield and unleashing a screaming shot from 18 yards out.

It whistled into the Charlton goal, giving Kiely no chance of keeping it out.

But Villa had had to work hard to beat Kiely, who was the star of the first half, denying Villa two good chances.

He was called upon after only seven minutes to tip an 18-yard effort from Villa’s Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel around the post.

Then on 36 minutes, Kiely had to be at his very best to keep out a Steve Staunton header as the Villa defender got his head to a Gareth Barry free kick.

This followed Charlton’s best chance, as Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman was forced to get down low to stop Claus Jensen’s shot after the Dane combined with Jason Euell.

Aside from these efforts, however, the first half was uneventful, with both sides being generally restricted to pot-shots from outside the area.

Jensen’s shot remained Charlton’s best effort of the game until injury time in the second half, when Chris Powell had a late effort punched away by Enckelman.

But Villa’s second win of the campaign lifted them to ninth in the table.