Pards has long been seeking a new formation having spent his time with the Royals employing a 4-4-2 system.
Pardew, who is regarded by many as one of the bright young English managerial prospects, last year in pre-season he experimented with a 4-3-3 formation which proved ineffective.
However, a 4-5-1 formation used during Friday's game showed potential. Alan Pardew's critics would suggest that the Reading manager has merely copied the formation Sir Alex Ferguson used in the Champions League last season.
In an interview with Reading World Pards explained his new piece of tactical 'wizardry': "I wouldn't say I'm entirely happy with the 4-5-1 formation, but we used it at Villa last season and we were excellent.
"We've worked on it throughout pre-season and there are still some details we're still nailing down, but I'm absolutely sure we can play against a First Division club with that system, so teams won't know how we're going to play now which is what I want."
Reasing also played Nicky Forster and John Salako on the opposite sides (Forster on the left, Salako on the right) which enables the duo to cut inside on the ir stronger foot as Alan Pardew explained: "If you're going to play that system with two wide players, sometimes it works to have them on unnatural sides.
"This is because they can play around the corner to the main striker, and go on and join in with him. Both Forster and Salako did this today - I think the first goal came from that sort of movement.
"It gives us a lot of options, both Fozzy and Salako can go onto their weaker foot as well, so defenders don't know which way they're going to go. It's a conundrum which other teams are going to have to deal with."
Meanwhile, Pardew also revealed that Alex Smith, who scored Reading's third goal against Charlton, has not slipped out of his plans. He went on: "Smith's got great talent. It didn't work out for him last year but football's a funny game and it could go better for him this year at a higher level.
"Alex would probably say that left-back is his best position, but when you've got a young player like Nicky Shorey ahead of you it's difficult. But who knows, he could push Shorey to another level or even replace him."