Referee Peter Walton penalised Wigan defender Fitz Hall for an innocuous 85th-minute challenge on Hermann Hreidarsson and Darren Bent converted the spot-kick to clinch a dramatic 1-0 victory.

Pardew said: "It wasn't a cast-iron penalty, they are always difficult to give in the circumstances.

"But it was a big shout from the crowd and that was our noisy end. The players all appealed and perhaps that was enough.

"Hreidarsson was facing the goal looking to get a shot off."

He continued: "The result was everything for us. The stadium was fantastic for us today.

"Really 60% of the game we did well - we defended well, were organised and disciplined and that probably won us the game because we didn't play well.

"Wigan refused to let us get the ball down and play as their work-rate was tremendous but we hung in there and our spirit could not be denied.

"We were hanging in there at times, at set-plays especially. We couldn't have done that two months ago."

The win has left Charlton just one point off safety and Pardew declared the teams directly above his side in the Premiership table will now be looking over their shoulders in concern.

He said: "This was a big, big win for us. We have Sheffield United at home and we're now in control of our own destiny and we couldn't have asked for that two months ago.

"We'll take that with seven games to go. We have turned the tables on our form - 10 points from four games with three clean sheets at home.

"Those stats start to add up. I felt this was perhaps the most important game to reel in the others.

"West Ham winning as well has brought some life to the fight at the bottom when it all looked dead and buried."

Wigan boss Paul Jewell was furious with the penalty but admitted his side contributed to their own downfall.

He said: "We don't think it was a penalty. The game was low on quality. It felt like we were slightly the better team but we lacked a cutting edge.

"The least we deserved was a draw and we didn't want to concede a goal in controversial circumstances.

"It's difficult because I care passionately about my club and this team but if that was a penalty then there should be 20 penalties a game.

"We dominated possession but didn't make enough of our opportunities. We were sound defensively but didn't make things happen at the vital times.

"It was a bad goal from our point of view as we should have dealt with it defensively.

"I don't want to keep on but we're disappointed and now we move onto Bolton next week."

Jewell pointed out that while Charlton had registered a crucial victory in the race to beat the drop, Wigan were still in the stronger position.

He said: "We still wouldn't have been out of the relegation scrap even had we won today. There are 21 points to play for.

"I'd rather be in our position than Charlton's, although they will have a better weekend than I will.

"But we have three more points with a better goal difference. There are four teams worse off than us at this moment in time.

"I think 38 or 39 points will be enough to keep you up this year. That could change from week to week.

"It's up to us and if we don't get enough points between now and the end then we deserve to go down."