Charlton Athletic 1 v Oldham Athletic 1

Over a year ago I posted on a frustrating 1-1 draw with "Hold-em" and commented that it was the second successive season they had come to the Valley with the express intention of returning to Lancashire with a point. After a 0-0 towards the end of the season at their place, they have snatched another point from us. We can have few complaints. We didn't do enough and were too satisfied with having broken the deadlock.

The side was the same again; Hamer, Wiggins, Taylor, Morrison, Solly, Ephraim, Russell, Hollands, Green, Wright-Phillips and Kermorgant. Oldham enjoyed a decent first-half in spite of not having an effort on goal but we didn't create a whole lot more. Danny Green had a better game than not late and might have capped it with the opener when he burst clear of the back-line, closed in on goal but dragged his shot wide of the far post from 20 yards. Bradley Wright-Phillips also had a chance before the break but it was not his day and his first touch let him down throughout the match.

Paul Dickov's half-time talk was about how well they had done and that they just had to hang on for forty-five minutes for a point. Cisak began the time-wasting with every goal-kick and should have been booked after 50 minutes when he took a full minute to take one but the referred was struggling to keep up with the match so it was no surprise that he went unpunished. Every throw-in was delayed as one player left the ball for another and I feared a nil-nil. The breakthrough came on the hour. A delightful ball from Matt Taylor floated into the box and two red shirts were waiting on it. Darel Russell was first to it and he dinked it on beyond Cisak with a deft header. That should have been the starter but we simply didn't do enough after that to secure the game. Green had enjoyed a better than recent afternoon and his through ball on the break set BWP for number two but having out-paced the racing keeper, Bradley's touch let him down again and it went begging.

Oldham stuck to the plan and with the clock running down, began to probe down our right and throw men forward. We had a warning when they broke and played around Chris Solly and within a couple of minutes, they repeated the feat and found Morais in the box with our defence back-peddling and he picked his spot with a fine finish. It was more than the pathetic visiting support deserved and they reacted as if they had won the cup.

Yann Kermorgant deserves a mention for another whole-hearted performance which outshone Bradley Wright-Phillips. The midfield played well enough but didn't create and the back four were largely untroubled. Rhoys Wiggins is a joy to watch and I am amazed he is still playing League One football.

Disappointing that we couldn't really put them under pressure in the final minutes and the four minutes of added time were largely played out in our half. A 19,500 crowd left in frustration but it's a sign of the times that we have maintained our unbeaten record and consider this such a disappointment. Wednesday and Hudders shared the points and with MK Dons losing at home as I suggested they might to a Phil Brown-less Preston, it wasn't such a bad day. We need four points from the two away fixtures over Christmas to keep the ship on course and allow us to enjoy our day out in Fulham.