Charlton 0 Birmingham 0

Charlton boss Phil Parkinson was unhappy with the match officials after Darren Ward’s second half goal was wrongly ruled out off for offside.

Ward appeared to put the home side in front when he scored from close range after a quickly-taken free-kick was headed back across goal.

The on-loan defender was deemed offside, but replays showed the goal should have stood.

Parkinson said: “The only disappointing feature was the disallowed goal which everyone tells me was onside.

“In a big game like that, you need the officials to get the one big decision they had to make right and they got it wrong which has cost us three points.

“It was an excellent finish and we should be sat here talking about a good victory but they got it wrong.”

Keeper Maik Taylor stopped Charlton snatching a late winner with a superb injury time double-save. He produced a top-class fingertip stop to deny teenager Jonjo Shelvey, and then kept out Tresor Kandol’s follow-up.

It capped an unfortunate afternoon in front of goal, with Lloyd Sam hitting the bar, and Chinese international Zheng Zhi seeing another chance cleared by Stephen Carr.

Charlton keeper Rob Elliot also pulled off two fine saves late on to deny Keith Fahey.

Birmingham sent on Kevin Phillips early in the second half, looking to add to his impressive tally against Charlton, having scored in his last three matches, but his best chance came in stoppage time when he shot wide.

Charlton: Elliot, Butterfield, Youga, Hudson, Ward, Sam (Ambrose 90mins), Racon (Dickson 79mins), Shelvey, Zheng. Bailey, Kandol. Subs not used: Randolph, Holland, Burton. Attendance: 20,022.