Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday were forced to settle for a point apiece in their Championship clash at The Valley.

The home side started the better of the teams as Chris Kirkland had to be alert to stop Glen Loovens's miscued clearance from ending up in his own net.

Jordan Cousins then came close with a powerful 25-yard effort that took a slight deflection off teammate Simon Church, but it went just wide of the target.

Wednesday then had the best chance of the game. Roger Johnson met a corner with a volley and his effort raced towards the net, but the ball clattered off the bar and the rebound was cleared by the home side's defence.

Connor Wickham went close with two efforts just before the break but Ben Alnwick was able to keep the striker at bay on both occasions.

After the break, Charlton took the lead. A ball was pumped long into the box and Dale Stephens took control, made a neat move around a defender and fired an effort into the top corner.

However, Wednesday pulled themselves level minutes later when Wickham turned the ball in from close range after Chris Maguire's volley looked to be finding the net anyway.

The visitors upped the ante late in the game and came close to taking the lead, but Wickham headed over from close range and then Alnwick made a great point-blank save to deny Roger Johnson.

Charlton had a great chance to win the contest late on. Dorian Dervite lifted a ball forward and Loovens missed a header, leaving Church one-on-one with Kirkland, but he could only fire over the bar.