Lee Bowyer says his side showed Rovers no shortage of respect, not least by the man-marking job on Bradley Dack.

The Addicks marked their return to the Championship with a 2-1 victory at Ewood Park courtesy of goals from Ben Purrington and Lyle Taylor.

Rovers dominated the ball, but struggled to find a way through a rigid, but well organised, Charlton back five, and failed to fully extend goalkeeper Dillon Phillips who was unfortunate to put in to his own net for the equaliser.

Charlton midfielder Darren Pratley paid close attention to Dack throughout the game and while Bowyer admitted it was ‘a bit old school’, he felt it worked well for his side.

"From back to front I thought we competed,” he said.

“We didn’t give them any chances, there is not a chance that comes off the top of my heading thinking ‘he should have scored there’ that didn’t happen.

“I think our back five worked really well. I think when they were crossing it we had three against one. I played with a diamond in front of them, Dack can hurt you, so I played Darren Pratley around him as a man-to-man marking job.

“It’s a bit old school but at times you have got to respect who you are playing against and that’s what we’ve done.

“We respected them, realised their strengths and I know we’re always going to create chances, it’s just whether we take them. Thankfully we did.”

Charlton came in to the game as favourites to be relegated after winning the League One play-off final in May.

Bowyer believes his side can prove the doubters, and bookmakersm wrong, and victory on the opening day can give his players the belief they need.

He told his club’s website: "I’m over the moon to come away from home, to a good football club in Blackburn, they finished mid-table last year, so it was a good challenge for us. I said earlier on in the week that it would give us an idea of where we are.

"It proves it to the players, I said to them ‘believe in yourselves because you are going to surprise teams’.

“Now this has happened on the first day I’m over the moon for them because now they might realise how good they are and what they are capable of doing.

“Don’t forget, we’ve still got to bring in four or five more players, that’s what I just said to them, we’re going to get stronger as well.

“They just keep going and fighting and competing for everything. For as long as we’ve got that we’re going to be ok."