Deon Burton scored a hat-trick as Charlton took Norwich with them into League One on Sunday.
Canaries relegated on last day of season
Deon Burton scored a hat-trick as Charlton took Norwich with them into League One with a 4-2 win on Sunday.
Nicky Bailey netted his 13th goal of the season for the already relegated Addicks and it proved unlucky for the Canaries with just 10 minutes gone.
Matters got a whole lot worse for City when Deon Burton's quickfire double pushed them ever closer to the trapdoor.
Alan Lee did pull one back with the last action of the half, but the Canaries' fate was sealed when Burton bundled home his third of the afternoon on 51 minutes.
Sammy Clingan grabbed another goal for the visitors 10 minutes later but it did little to halt Bryan Gunn's side from beating the drop with Barnsley escaping relegation with a 2-1 win over Plymouth.
Norwich will join Charlton and Southampton - all of whom were living the Premier League high life just four years ago - in League One next term.
Must-win
Norwich arrived in south London knowing only a win would do, and even then they needed Plymouth to beat Barnsley to send the Tykes down instead.
Barnsley did obligingly fall behind, but as the Canaries fans were raucously celebrating news of a Plymouth goal, they were silenced when Charlton went ahead.
Winger Lloyd Sam beat Jason Shackell to the byline and crossed for Bailey to plant a simple header past David Marshall.
In the 25th minute the hosts were two up when Sam's shot was only parried by Marshall into the path of Burton, who tapped in the rebound.
Five minutes later Burton doubled his tally when he got the faintest of touches onto Bailey's cross to divert the ball home.
The pre-match optimism of the travelling support had quickly evaporated, with a less-than-rousing chorus of 'You're not fit to wear the shirt' breaking out from behind Marshall's goal.
Glimmer of hope
The Canaries gave themselves a glimmer of hope in first-half stoppage time, however, when Lee nodded the ball home with their only effort on target so far.
But six minutes into the second half Burton completed his treble, tucking away another Sam cross from close range.
Clingan's 20-yard curler beat Addicks goalkeeper Rob Elliot on the hour and Simon Lappin's quickly-taken free-kick also hit the net only to be ruled out and the midfielder booked for protesting.
But by now Barnsley were winning - a fact the Charlton fans helpfully pointed out - and City's fate was sealed.
Lee forced a fine save from Elliot with a header and at the other end Jonjo Shelvey grazed the crossbar.
