Rowett equaliser clouds Wilkinson's vision of order

Charlton Athletic 1 Sunderland 1

Charlton Athletic and Sunderland played their traditional draw at The Valley yesterday and, in their present difficult circumstances, had to be happy enough with it. Unlike the epic play-off final between the clubs in 1998, there was no penalty shoot-out but, as on that famous occasion, each could easily have won and neither deserved to lose. The difference was that these days Charlton lack a Clive Mendonca, their hat-trickster at Wembley, and, although Sunderland have a Kevin Phillips, he is not the Phillips of old.

Fortunately for Howard Wilkinson, Tore Andre Flo, left out of the manager's two previous games, came up with an early goal, which made a point in more ways than one. It was the second draw under the new regime, but all three games have been against lowly opposition; Arsenal (in the Worthington Cup), Tottenham and Liverpool are next up. "It was an improvement again," Wilkinson said. "We're getting there but as I've said all along this will not be a quick fix. The players are recognising that a team has to have discipline and order."

An equally pointed remark about not being fit enough may have had Wilkinson's successor Peter Reid blushing in the Sky Sports studio, though he managed not to rise to the bait. Perhaps two training sessions each day are not sufficient.

Wilkinson had sat scribbling in the stand before leaping to his feet as Sunderland went ahead in the 14th minute. Paul Thirlwell, in for the injured Claudio Reyna, won the ball 25 yards out and fed Gavin McCann, whose shot fell for Flo to drive past Dean Kiely.

Another 14 minutes and there might have been a second goal: from Michael Gray's corner, the smallest man in the penalty area, Phillips, was allowed a header that took a deflection before the excellent Scott Parker cleared off the line.

Parker and Claus Jensen were the influential figures as Charlton attempted a recovery, combining to produce two opportunities in the last quarter of an hour before half-time. In the 31st minute Jensen's shot was blocked by Stephen Wright after a smart one-two between John Robinson and Jason Euell. Soon afterwards, Jensen passed to Parker, whose low drive was pushed behind for a corner by Jürgen Macho.

Sunderland's third-choice goalkeeper – Thomas Sorensen and Thomas Myhre are both among the injured – was not entirely confident with his handling, but did well 10 seconds into the second half to save from the Dane, Jensen, who had gone clear.

That was one of several marginal offside decisions at the same end, another coming after 71 minutes, when Robinson and Gary Rowett lunged at Euell's jab forward and the former Leicester City man – who had earlier curled a free-kick a fraction wide – was allowed his first goal for Charlton.

Euell's effort was then disallowed, wrongly, and Kevin Lisbie somehow missed a clear chance from four yards. But Sunderland could point to two fine stops by Dean Kiely, from Kevin Kilbane and Flo, the first of which bizarrely brought them a corner, when the ball had bounced off the bar to Phillips, who was in a position to score.

Goals: Flo (14) 0-1, Rowett (71) 1-1.

Charlton Athletic (3-5-2): Kiely 7; Rufus 7, Rowett 7, Fish 6; Robinson 4 (Johansson, 89), Parker 8 (Kishishev, 84), Mustoe 5, Jensen 7, Powell 3; Euell 6, Bartlett 4 (Lisbie 4, 73). Substitutes not used: Roberts (gk), Young.

Sunderland (4-4-2): Macho 5; Wright 6, Bjorklund 7, Craddock 8, Babb 7; Thirlwell 6 (Williams 5, 65), McCann 6, Kilbane 7, Gray 7; Phillips 4 (Piper, 80) Flo 6. Substitutes not used: Ingham (gk), McCartney, Stewart.

Referee: D Gallagher (Banbury) 6.

Bookings: Charlton: Parker. Sunderland: McCann, Bjorklund, Williams, Wright.

Man of the match: Parker.

Attendance: 26,284.