IAIN Dowie was swelling with pride after picking up his first Premiership win as Charlton's head coach against Bolton Wanderers, writes Lindsay McCombie.

He said: "What transpired today is people stood up and were counted.

"We played really well after we went down to 10 men but the penalty save was the catalyst to get the belief.

"After that I thought we really came on strong and lifted the tempo.

"When you're a new manager you need to get a result as early as you can. We ground it out a bit today but we deserved it because of the heart of the players."

Darren Ambrose was again sacrificed after the red card and his substitution was not received well at The Valley, as Radostin Kishishev came into the midfield.

But the Charlton boss was making no apologies for the change.

He said: "People didn't agree with me taking Darren off but I thought it was a positive change because we left two up front.

"I didn't want to take him off but I'm the manager of a football team and to be fair Kish has got a bit more defensive ability."

The dismissal also led to Amady Faye dropping into central defence and with Hreidarsson looking at a three-match ban, the Senegal international could be asked to play in that position when Charlton travel to Premiership champions Chelsea on September 9.

Dowie said: "Losing Hermann's a blow. We've already got Gonzalo Sorondo out with a fracture in his back and Jonathan Fortune couldn't play today because he's got a broken toe.

"We're down to the bare bones in that position but the way Faye played he might be a contender."

Dowie said he will consider whether to lodge an appeal against the Icelander's red card.

He said: "It was a difficult game to referee, but there wasn't any malice in anything.

"Does Hermann look at Davies? No, he doesn't, but he does catch him. There wasn't any intent, but he did connect with him.

"He's very disappointed and he's desperate to appeal. We'll check it again on the video."

The Valley chief added: "I've said before I don't want people off the pitch.

"There weren't any brutal challenges and the loss of those players will hurt both teams.

"To be fair I know there's been an undertaking by referees to clamp down on the use of arms but football is a physical game and we don't want it to be sanitised."