Charlton midfielder Bryan Hughes stepped off the bench to give Alan Pardew the first win of his reign as new Addicks boss as they beat Aston Villa 2-1 at The Valley.
Villa opened the scoring in the 40th minute when Gareth Barry was brought down by Hermann Hreidarsson and got up to smash home the spot-kick.
Charlton were desperate in the first half but emerged with a little more purpose after the interval and were rewarded with Bent's 57th-minute headed equaliser.
The Addicks' hopes of securing a first victory under Pardew improved after Barry - the last defender - was shown a straight red card for felling Dennis Rommedahl just outside the area.
And then Hughes arrived to fire a 90th minute winner just as it appeared Villa had done enough to earn a share of the spoils.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)