Charlton manager Alan Pardew insisted his side's point at fellow
strugglers Watford "felt like a win" even though it meant they fell
further behind in the scramble for Premiership survival.
The team to make the most significant forward step on Saturday
turned out to be Wigan, who beat Manchester City for their second
consecutive victory and moved eight points clear of the bottom
three.
But Paul Jewell's side still face a trip to Charlton and Pardew,
whose team are six points from safety, remained upbeat despite
having seen his side out-played in the first half.
"We have got two home games coming up against Newcastle and
Wigan," he said. "And this point could turn out to be very
useful.
"The gap isn't huge - it would only be if we weren't putting in
performances like the one in the second half today."
Charlton had demolished West Ham 4-0 last week but never looked
like inflicting a similar scoreline on Watford, going into half
time 2-0 down.
Pardew replaced the out of sorts Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink with
China captain Zheng Zhi and the improvement was immediate.
On 57 minutes Alexandre Song opened up the Watford defence and
Luke Young made no mistake to put his side back in the game, and
Darren Ambrose headed a late equalizer.
"The players are a little bit dejected but I have told them this
is still a win for us because coming back from 2-0 down at Watford
is a tough, tough order."
(China Daily via AFP March 5, 2007)