ON A day when Middlesbrough hoped to celebrate ten years at the Riverside Stadium in style, Charlton Athletic were in no mood for sentiment and Boro resembled a team already suffering from a hangover.

The Addicks - courtesy of goals from Dennis Rommedahl, Chris Perry and Darren Bent - comfortably overcame a totally ineffective and lacklustre Boro, whose manager Steve McClaren was left a little red-faced.

Yesterday morning McClaren had claimed he had all the credentials to become the next England boss, but on the basis of this display he should concentrate on making sure his current squad are knocked into shape for the season ahead.

To add insult to injury it was Rommedahl, part of the Denmark side that smashed four past England in Copenhagen earlier this month, who kick-started Charlton, managed by a man also among those tipped to succeed Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Charlton - whose victory was a replica of the way they claimed all three points at Sunderland on the opening day - cruised past Boro with the sort of injection of pace the Teessiders are in desperate need of before Wednesday's transfer deadline.

McClaren's afternoon was summed up by expensive summer signing Aiyegbeni Yakubu embarrassingly sprawled on the floor after connecting with fresh air as he attempted a volley on goal.

Thousands had already left the Riverside when striker Bent ran clean through and completed the London club's third successive win of the campaign, compounding Boro's misery on an afternoon when they had hoped to carry on where they left off at Birmingham in midweek.

It had initially looked rosy when James Morrison, claiming his place in the starting line-up at the expense of Gaizka Mendieta for the second game in a row, burst down the right flank.

Boro's other young winger, Stewart Downing, delivered the first testing cross of the afternoon that very nearly led to the opening goal.

Downing, who otherwise struggled when he would have liked to have impressed having been demoted to the England Under-21s set-up for the up-coming internationals, curled in a perfect left-footed centre that bounced up and was headed over by Yakubu.

Yakubu's impact since arriving from Portsmouth has been a slow one.

He has failed to score in his first three league outings and had to miss Tuesday's win at Birmingham with a heel injury picked up at Tottenham.

He was back in the side yesterday at the expense of Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, who did not even make the bench after suffering with a thigh problem.

Hasselbaink's withdrawal offered the £7.5m man another chance to prove he was worth the fee but the Nigerian's settling in period looks no nearer coming to an end.

There were a few occasions where he wanted the ball played in behind the defence but his team-mates placed it into his chest - and Charlton's defence found it to their liking.

And it was Charlton's attacking trio of Bent, Rommedahl and Jerome Thomas who proved the more adventurous and the more dangerous.

Rommedahl and Thomas' pace down the flanks caused Franck Queudrue and Michael Reiziger all manner of problems and it was the former of the two that opened the scoring.

Bent and the effective Danny Murphy linked up well on the edge of the area before the midfielder fed Rommedahl and the Scandinavian casually slotted into Mark Schwarzer's bottom left corner seven minutes before the break.

Queudrue had an effort cleared off the line by Luke Young and Morrison forced goalkeeper Stephan Andersen into a save but Charlton deserved to be in front at half-time.

McClaren took both players off and brought Mendieta and Austrian Emanuel Pogatetz on for his debut, but neither had much impact and the Spaniard lasted just 13 minutes before he was hauled off for Massimo Maccarone.

He at least injected a little life into proceedings as part of a three-man attack but Charlton remained in control; hardly tested by a team apparently playing at home.

It was the Italian, only playing because a summer move back home broke down, who looked the most likely Boro player to claim an equaliser.

But a header and his sweetly struck long-range drive were both stopped by Andersen.

The mass exodus at the Riverside started nine minutes from time when Charlton added the second.

Pogatetz's clumsy foul on Murphy on the right wing handed a free-kick in a dangerous area. Murphy picked himself up, teed up Perry who, after pulling away from his markers, slotted low past Schwarzer.

And those supporters who stayed for the final whistle applauded the winners when Bent - sent clean through by substitute Bryan Hughes - simply placed the ball past Schwarzer with ease.

Result: Middlesbrough 0 Charlton Athletic 3.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.