Charlton nerves exploited by Luton

TREVOR HAYLETT

Charlton Athletic 1 Luton Town 1

As the manager of Charlton, Lennie Lawrence had waited a long time to return to The Valley and when he finally made it, now in charge of Luton, it was every bit as good as he hoped it would be. At least it was for 70 minutes before his former club contrived a fortuitous equaliser yesterday.

The Charlton supporters, warm in their appreciation, still remember him with affection though they will be cursing Lawrence if Luton are found to have been the stumbling block on which their attempt to annexe one of the two automatic promotion places came to grief.

Indeed, Charlton were lucky to prise a single point from a nerve-ridden, untidy affair, a harshly awarded penalty giving Bradley Allen the chance to score his first goal at The Valley following his pounds 400,000 move from Queen's Park Rangers. After the defeat by Leicester the wasting of another home opportunity promises to be costly.

Luton needed to win just as badly with the games remaining for them to embellish Lawrence's reputation as the master escapologist diminishing. For an hour their football contained an element of composure that Charlton sorely lacked.

The visitors took the lead on 23 minutes with a goal engineered by the player whose departure from Charlton last week provided the means to fund Allen's arrival. Having initially lost the ball, Kim Grant was then gifted possession again by Jamie Stuart and immediately saw the possibilities with Tony Thorpe striding away in space.

Thorpe was allowed a clear run but his shot, hit firmly across Andy Petterson, appeared to be travelling fractionally wide when Richard Rufus, in a despairing attempt to rescue the situation turned the ball over the line.

With Lee Bowyer searching for form and Ian Feuer a commanding presence, Charlton, in front of a sell-out 14,000-plus crowd, their biggest in the League this season, were left wondering where they could make inroads, even accounting for Allen's superior touches.

After Grant had lashed a promising opening wide they at last began to make progress and on the hour. John Robinson found room for a left-wing cross which struck Steve Davies on the arm. The penalty clearly distracted the Luton defender who was nearly punished a second time when he put Bowyer through for an instinctive finish that Feuer did well to keep out.

Late on, Luton were rescued by a post after Paul Linger's shot had fizzed through. That would have put Charlton in better heart for their next two games, against Sunderland and Derby, but the play-offs look the limit of their ambitions.

"We started very brightly, but didn't get the early goal we needed to settle us down," Alan Curbishley, the Charlton manager, said.

"The whole place is getting too anxious - the players and the crowd. With such a young side, perhaps we're running before we can walk as a football club."

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): Petterson; Brown, Rufus, C Whyte, Stuart (Linger, 51); Robson, Bowyer (D Whyte, 75), Jones, Robinson; Allen, Leaburn. Substitute not used: Balmer.

Luton Town (4-4-2): Feuer; Alexander, Davis, Patterson, Thomas; Thorpe (Tomlinson, 81), Waddock, Harvey (Johnson, 75), Genchev; Grant (Oakes, 77), Wilkinson.

Referee: B Burns (Scarborough).