It wasn't just a rumour after all, Francis Laurent was surprisingly passed fit and resumed his place on the right wing instead of Damien Scannell. There was also the expected return of Anthony Grant for the suspended Jean-Francois Christophe.
There were plenty of seasonal boos for pantomime villian Nicky Bailey, who went on to have a very ordinary game, along with several of the home side, but they ended up with the three points.
A sign of a team that wins things the cliche tells us, having seen Norwich last Tuesday, as well as Leeds earlier in the season, I'm not too sure that will be the case here come May.
A couple of early chances for Jabo Ibehre and Franck Moussa before Charlton countered through ex-loanee Lloyd Sam, who forced a fine one handed save from Steve Mildenhall who continued his recent good form in the Southend goal.
Then, a very early turning point. Top scorer Lee Barnard received a beautiful ball from Laurent in the penalty area after one of the Frenchman's typical mazy runs, did everything right, fired his shot, we all thought, to give us the lead, but there was Addicks keeper Rob Elliot to charge down his shot brilliantly.
An 'oh crap, are going to pay for that' moment. And, of course, in our present run of form, we did.
In the 25th minute Sam's cross from the right was met by an unmarked Deon Burton whose downward header was powerful enough to get under the body of Mildenhall.
A brief period of Charlton pressure followed, Big Steve tipping over a Bailey free-kick, however the Essex boys looked OK, the two loanees at the back, Morrison and Malone, both only 18, having far better games than they did against the Canaries Tuesday evening.
There was defiant hope at half-time amongst the faithful that the second 45 could bring an equaliser.
And we certainly huffed and puffed and passed the ball around in that Tilly side sort of way, but never really looked like putting the ball in the opposition net, which is the ultimate aim of a game of football.
Then again, nor did Charlton, until another Burton header just before the end had to be cleared, and they did start the day 16 points and 11 places above us, and were in their own backyard.
A Simon Francis free-kick just over the top was the closest, but even James Walker and Damien Scannell coming on for Ibehre and the Moose respectively could save the day.
The referee, and it has to be said Mr. McDermid has been far worse, allowed three minutes of stoppage time that allowed one last chance for left back Scott Malone, who for all his reputation for free-kicks doesn't seem to take particularly good ones, to shoot high and wide.
In fact, doing the opposite, and shooting hard and low is one skill I hope the management ask the players to get back into the habit of during training Monday morning.
"Southend had plenty of possession", said an Addick as I left the ground in the rain after the game. But unless we find away to turn that possession into points very quickly this could be a long, hard winter.
The boys are in 14th place, not bad, until you see Brighton in 21st and the dreaded bottom four, are only a win away from us.
Similar to last February then, when after a 2-0 defeat at Leeds, a certain French centre half was borrowed from Spurs and helped turn our season round.
This time there's no money, little chance of resting players unless they get themselves suspended, poor Franck would be put down if he really was a Moose, and now Barney is missing reasonable chances.
Hartlepool next Saturday has become a very important game.
Southend Player Markings: Mildenhall - 7, Francis - 6, Morrison - 8, Barrett - 7, Malone - 7, Laurent - 7, Grant - 6, McCormack - 7, Moussa - 5 (Scannell 87), Ibehre - 6 (Walker 80), Barnard - 6.
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