Stoke City brought Charlton Athletic's unbeaten start to the Championship season to an abrupt end as the Addicks' former Stoke boss Nathan Jones made an unhappy return to the Potteries.

Just eight days ago, following Stoke's 4-1 defeat at Wolves, Mark Robins' pointless Potters were taking a pounding from large sections of their fans, on air, online and in the ground.

But, after beating Norwich 1-0 on Tuesday night, Stoke further silenced the doubters as they scored four first-half goals - all from summer signings - two for deadline-day debutant Justin Devenny, one for Ethan Galbraith and a first for the club for striker George Hirst.

That stunned Charlton, who then had substitute Dan McNamara sent off five minutes into the second half.

Jones' reshaped side did at least keep the score down after the break as Robins rang the changes, including the introduction of another new boy Jack McGlynn, But, instead of being booed off, Stoke were cheered off.

It was a penalty after 15 minutes that got the Potters off and running.

Charlton were penalised by referee Bobby Madley for Timothy Ouma grappling Ben Wilmot at a corner - and Devenny confidently tucked away the resulting spot-kick.

Seven minutes later, £10m Northern Ireland international Galbraith was at it again, pouncing on a loose ball on the edge of the area to fire his third goal of the campaign low past Addicks keeper Arthur Okonkwo.

Then, on 25 minutes, it was 3-0 when Devenny spread a lovely pass out wide to Eric Bocat on the left and his great cross was met by the head of Hirst.

There was even time for another one before the break when new boy Devenny got his second.

The second half could only really ever have been a comparative non-event after that, although Charlton were further inconvenienced when they were reduced to 10 men.

McNamara had only come on in the 26th minute for Tyreece Campbell in an attempted reshuffle after Stoke's third goal had gone in – but he was sent off for a second yellow card.

And, although there have been celebrated occasions when teams have turned round a four-goal halfway deficit, no team has ever done it a man short.

Six points in successive home games have suddenly transformed the mood in the Potteries, lifting Stoke into the top half of the early season table.

And are Charlton, despite their cracking start of three wins and a midweek comeback draw at West Bromwich Albion, suddenly back to the drawing board?

What a difference a week makes. Not just in politics. But in football too.

Stoke boss Mark Robins was feeling the heat a week ago, after his side had just lost their first three league games of the season.

He remained typically upbeat, insistent that his team were not getting a lot of luck and were certainly not getting the results they deserved. And so it has very quickly proved.

The midweek victory earned by summer signing Galbraith's goal, stopped the rot and silenced the noise. And this result really should convince the doubters.

It is not just the manager who needs credit though.

The main man John Coates, sole outright owner of the Potters now since August 2024, has taken some flak since he took charge.

But Robins has always insisted that Coates has given him great backing - as further illustrated by their taking the number of summer signings to 10, two of them for 10-figure sums.

And, with the club's latest addition Devenny scoring twice on his debut, the joint bet365 owner, who has made it clear that it is very much his own money that he pumps into the club, has finally earned an instant dividend.

Stoke now to head to south Wales on Tuesday to face Cardiff City (19:45 BST) before moving on to Watford next Saturday (15:00 BST).

Charlton face a home local derby in which to try and lick their wounds against QPR on Wednesday (20:00 BST) before another home game next Saturday against Portsmouth (15:00 BST).

Stoke City boss Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke:

"On the back of the other night, it was really important that we put in a good performance. We started really brightly and we created momentum.

"Then we got the penalty. He held onto him and we've all been warned that this was going to be the case and it would now be a penalty.

"Justin Devenny then took his other goal well, George Hirst gets his first goal for the club from a really good passage of play. And Ethan Galbraith got a lovely goal too.

"We've got players who look really hungry for goals. And, If we can get that throughout the team, it really bodes well."

Charlton boss Nathan Jones:

"I've gone in and seen him [the referee]. I'm bitterly disappointed with my own team's performance, but I'm as bitterly disappointed with another performance as well.

"There were so many things that went against us but straight after the penalty we went under for 20 minutes – and my teams don't normally do that.

"But we've done it twice here. That's the thing that hurts me and hurts my teams, us going under like that. They [Stoke] need me to come here because they get better results when I get back.

"We had a great start and wanted to silence the crowd, but we gave away an absolute gift. That can't happen. But, after the penalty, fair play to Stoke, they never looked back. After that gift of the penalty they were far better."