Dwight Gayle made the most of a rare start for Crystal Palace as his second-half hat-trick sunk 10-man Charlton Athletic in the south London derby at Selhurst Park on Wednesday night and also booked their place in the fourth round of the League Cup.

The striker confidently converted two penalties and then completed his treble with a header in the closing stages of the tie after Frazier Campbell had broken the deadlock minutes after the interval with his first goal of the season.

Palace shaded the early stages of the first half as Wilfried Zaha spurned a good opportunity in the ninth minute as he headed over the bar with just Nick Pope to beat and Alou Diarra was on hand to make an outstanding block to prevent Campbell’s goal-bound effort from hitting the back of the net.

The Championship outfit were more than holding their own as the opening 45 minutes drew to a close and youngster Karlan Ahearne-Grant underlined their growing confidence by forcing Wayne Hennessey into a comfortable save.

But the gulf in quality between the two rivals shone through soon after the restart as Campbell made amends for a missed chance moments earlier as he created space for himself in the penalty box and coolly stroked the ball into the net to finally find a breakthrough.

A second goal for the Eagles followed swiftly as Diarra fouled Campbell in the area and Gayle confidently dispatched the resulting penalty to give the home side breathing space on the hour mark.

Addicks defender Naby Sarr halved the deficit five minutes later as he crashed a header past Hennessey to serve a reminder that the tie was far from over.

However, any hopes the visitors had of forcing the game into extra time were ended in the 74th minute as Diarra was given his marching orders for bringing down Gayle in the area and the Palace forward dusted himself down to net his second penalty of the night and restore the two-goal advantage.

He went on to cap off a memorable night on a personal note four minutes from time as he rose highest to head home from a corner and set up an all-Premier League clash for the Eagles in the next round against leaders Manchester City at Eastlands.