Depleted Bristol Rovers hold in-form Charlton to a draw

Injury-hit Bristol Rovers produced a battling display to hold promotion-chasing Charlton to a 1-1 League One draw at the Memorial Stadium.The hosts took a 21st-minute lead after an error by Charlton skipper Jason Pearce, whose header back to goalkeeper Ben Amos lacked sufficient pace and Kyle Bennett nipped in to shoot home from close range.Just before half-time the scores were level as Ben Reeves exchanged passes with Sullay Kaikai on the edge of the box and saw his shot brush the leg of defender Lee Brown to beat the dive of Sam Slocombe.The Rovers goalkeeper had made a brilliant 36th-minute save to keep out a curling right-footed effort from Nicky Ajose and repeated the heroics on 53 minutes to keep out a similar effort from Reeves.Already without half-a-dozen injured players, Rovers lost midfielder Liam Sercombe on 24 minutes and had to move captain Tom Lockyer forward from central defence. They gave a debut to 20-year-old left-back Michael Kelly in the closing stages.