BOLO ZENDEN made it a Valley of smiles for Boro boss Steve McClaren.
The Dutch master's winning goal was a work of art that stretched the Teessiders' unbeaten run to seven games, including the UEFA Cup.
And it gave McLaren his first victory at Charlton in four attempts as Boro boss.
The London side may be struggling, yet this was their first Premiership home defeat since March. And it was a bitter pill after they had fought their way back into the game.
A fortunate own goal off home defender Talal El Karkouri gave Boro a 21st-minute lead. But it was cancelled out a minute after half-time by Jonatan Johansson's first goal of the season.
Zenden's brilliant chip sealed the points 12 minutes later.
And McClaren said: "Zenden is a great player who likes to get forward and score, and he took his goal well.
"I was absolutely delighted with our performance. We've had a major breakthrough against one of our bogey teams.
Steel
"I have come here three times and gone away with nothing — not even a goal.
"We knew it would be difficult, but we showed steel against a team we knew would be up and at us.
"All credit to my team for keeping going after they equalised. We regained our composure and went on to score the winner.
"This was an important win for us in what is going to be a big week.
"Now we can look forward with confidence to playing Lazio on Thursday on what should be a memorable night."
The win took Boro to fourth in the table and McClaren added: "The players know that we expect to be up there at the top and I don't think we're in a false position.
"When you look at Hasselbaink and Viduka you saw today what a threat they are — and they can get better."
Hasselbaink was in the thick of it, but luck also played a huge part in Boro's first goal at The Valley since 1998.
A poor clearance by Charlton keeper Dean Kiely opened up a can of worms in the home defence.
He gave the ball away to Stewart Downing, whose cross was poorly cleared by Chris Perry.
A drive from Zenden then bounced off Hasselbaink's chest, rebounded against Charlton defender Talal El Karkouri and rolled past Keily.
Within a few minutes Charlton nearly handed Boro a second.
Another mistimed clearance by Perry set the ball up nicely for Mark Viduka, but he drove it over the bar.
Charlton boss Alan Curbishley had appealed to the fans not to turn on his players after a poor run.
But that did not stop him from dropping five following the Carling Cup defeat by Crystal Palace.
Curbishley gave winger Jerome Thomas his first Premiership start and the youngster did not let him down. Thomas had the Boro defence stretched in the first half with his jinking runs, and George Boateng had to throw himself bravely to block a sizzling Thomas drive.
Chances were few and far between, but that was to be expected from two sides who had scored just five goals between them in their previous eight meetings.
Charlton came out really fired up for the second half.
Jason Euell's 20-yard curler lacked the power to beat Mark Schwarzer. But, within a minute Charlton were level — and they owed it to two of the men recalled to the side by Curbishley.
Euell set it up with an exquisite pass that split the centre of Boro's defence. Johansson then kept a cool head to take the ball around Schwarzer and fire into an unguarded net.
Chip
But Boro went ahead again when Zenden swapped passes with Viduka before chipping a delightful left-footed effort over Kiely.
Charlton boss Curbishley said: "We've had a bad week but we can't just hide ourselves away and walk around with our heads down.
"If we don't get results, even I will come under pressure — that's life.
"But we must just get back to normality and not duck out of doing the normal things, like shopping and going for a meal.
"There were a lot of unhappy players I left out today. They may think those that came in didn't do much better than they would have done."
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