O'Brien og helps Charlton comeback

Charlton 1 Newcastle 1

Charlton and Newcastle shared the spoils from this afternoon’s hard-fought Barclays Premiership clash at The Valley.

Craig Bellamy’s goal put the visitors ahead on 39 minutes, heading in Olivier Bernard’s fine centre from close range.

However, the Addicks were level just after the restart when Andy O’Brien diverted the ball into his own net following good work from Kevin Lisbie.

Both sides had chances to win the game, with Alan Shearer having a goal-bound header cleared off the line and also having to clear off his own line. The home side also hit the woodwork twice during the closing stages.

Charlton were given special permission by the Premier League to wear their centenary kit for today’s clash, which was preceded by a presentation to the daughter of Addicks legend Sam Bartram and current midfielder Graham Stuart, to mark his recent 500th career appearance, from England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Newcastle, though, looked in determined mood to spoil the party atmosphere in south-east London and were seeing plenty of the ball during the opening exchanges.

Charlton finally found a way through what had been a resolute visiting backline on 14 minutes.

Lisbie held the ball up well, and fed it along the 18-yard line to Danny Murphy.

His slide-rule pass picked out Stuart on the overlap in the left-edge of the Newcastle box, and Shay Given had to pull off a fine one-handed save at full stretch to tip the midfielder’s curling shot over.

Just after the half-hour, Hermann Hreidarsson’s deep cross from the by-line to the back post needed Bernard to head clear under pressure from Lisbie.

Lee Bowyer then had a goal ruled out against his former club, as he was penalised for what looked minimal contact on Murphy as the pair jumped for the ball on the edge of the Charlton area.

Bellamy headed the knock-on back into Bowyer’s path, and the midfielder made no mistake from six yards, but the assistant’s flag had already been raised.

There was, though, no disputing the Welshman’s effort which did put Newcastle ahead on 39 minutes.

Jermaine Jenas worked the ball out to Bernard on the left, and his curling cross into the six-yard box eluded Jonathan Fortune, but not Bellamy, who timed his run perfectly to head past Dean Kiely.

Newcastle almost had another from the same provider moments later, this time Shearer sticking a boot out in the six-yard box, but stabbing the ball inches wide.

Neither side any changes at the break, and it was the visitors who were the first to show when Jenas almost found Shearer with a low centre across the six-yard box.

However, on 51 minutes, Charlton were level.

Luke Young’s knock-on fell into the path of Lisbie some 20 yards from goal, who magically flicked the ball up over Andy O’Brien and accelerated into the area.

Lisbie then elected to try and round the Newcastle keeper. That allowed Stephen Carr to make a tackle, knocking the ball back across goal and seemingly wide of the far post.

O’Brien, though, came sliding in, desperately trying to clear, but could only manage to stab the ball into the empty net.

Lisbie, however, was happy enough to claim both the goal and the adulation of his team-mates.

Following some heavy rain, the surface was now very slippery, and Murphy drilled in a 20-yard effort, which Given did well to beat away before Lisbie’s surging run released Shaun Bartlett to come in on the angle from the right, but he could only drive the ball into the side netting.

With 18 minutes left, Young threw himself in the way of Laurent Robert’s close-range drive after the Frenchman, a substitute, latched on to Shearer’s knock-down.

As the match moved into the closing stages, Shearer saw his header cleared off the line by Murphy following a corner, before Chris Perry got in the way of the former England striker’s 15-yard drive.

At the other end, Dennis Rommedahl’s 20-yard effort deflected off Bowyer and onto the crossbar, Shearer was on the line to chest Fortune’s drive clear, with Addicks skipper Matt Holland hitting the rebound into the ground and up onto the post.

A winner for either side would, though, have been an injustice as this fiercely contested encounter ended all square.