Man City 0 Charlton 0

Charlton finally pulled themselves out of the drop zone after a boring goalless draw with Manchester City. The game was dire but that didn't dampen the spirits of the 2,000 Addicks that made the journey north.

City started much more brightly and the home side forced corner after corner as they looked to get an early goal. Charlton though held strong and Amady Faye cleared from near his own goal line from Emile Mpenza to keep the game level.

Charlton did have the ball in the city net after 10 minutes but before most of the travelling fans had gone up in celebration the linesman had ruled Talal El Karkouri's effort as offside.

After 15 minutes Mpenza got himself into a great position in the Charlton area only to see the shot lack any power and the ball spun straight in the grateful arms of Scott Carson.

Just past the half hour mark Carson was called into serious action to deny Joey Barton, his shot from the edge of the box was well saved by the keeper.

Carson was again in the thick of it along with Barton when he denied the City midfielder with a fantastic save low to his left hand side.

Things slightly improved for Charlton after the break and with City looking shot shy there was little for the defence to worry about. The question was could the Addicks find the breakthrough to secure the points.

They almost did snatch all three points with 15 minutes remaining, Darren Bent fed the ball to Zheng Zhi in the City area but the pass was just behind the Chinese captain and he had his effort scrambled wide.

Nil-Nil it finished and the point see`s us go into Mondays game vs Reading at The Valley outside the drop zone, just!

Man City: Isaksson, Onuoha, Dunne, Distin, Ball, Johnson, Barton, Jihai, Ireland (Sinclair 74), Vassell (Samaras 74), Mpenza.

Subs Not Used: Weaver, Dabo, Beasley.

Charlton: Carson, Young, El Karkouri, Diawara, Hreidarsson, Zheng, Song, Faye, Thomas, Marcus Bent, Darren Bent.

Subs Not Used: Randolph, Ambrose, Lisbie, Bougherra, Rommedahl.

Att: 41,424

Ref: A Wiley (Staffordshire).

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