The Addicks cancelled out Luke Nien’s early goal six minutes into the second half when Reece James turned Lyle Taylor’s driven cross into his own goal.
Team wise, Lee Bowyer made two changes to the team that beat Walsall on New Year’s Day, with Chris Solly and Darren Pratley coming in for Toby Stevenson and Ben Reeves.
Albie Morgan retained his place and had another fine game. New signing, Johnny Williams, made his bow from the bench.
The Addicks got off to the worst possible start, and found themselves behind inside the first two minutes.
Lynden Gooch played James in. The full-back’s cross to the far post was hooked home by Nien.
Little was seen of Charlton as an attacking force in the first half-hour, but as the game went on, they gradually came more into it. And a minute before the interval Krystian Bielik went close to converting a Chris Solly cross .
The Addicks were a different proposition after the break though,and were level six minutes after the restart. Taylor’s low, hard driven cross was turned into his own net by James.
Both sides had good chances to win the game, but there was no further scoring.
Bowyer thought his team deserved to win, and had this to say after the game:
”If I’m honest I think they were the better side first half, but second half I think we came out and we dominated it.
“We pinned them in from the first minute and created a number of chances. I think overall we were the better side over the 90 minutes and I think we deserved to win.
“I just said that to the lads, I feel for them, they gave me everything and I’m so proud of them. I thanked them because it’s personal.
“When they go out there and give you that much effort and put their bodies on the line like they are, I take it personally.
“I just thanked them and said they deserved more today. They deserved to win the game on chances and unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way. And we didn’t take the chances we had and it’s 1-1, but I thought it was a very good entertaining game to watch.
“We’ve done that with a weakened side again. It just shows you, if we can get a few more bodies back, then we’ve got a very good chance on going on a very good run.
“It is going to be tough, this league is tough, everyone poses a different challenge to us but I have to say it was a great atmosphere.
“The crowd were unreal from start to finish. Even when we went behind the crowd did not stop singing, so praise for them, they played a big part in today’s performance as well.
“So I’m happy but I’m disappointed, it’s that in-between thing. At least we didn’t lose, we picked up a decent point because not many teams pick-up points against Sunderland,” said Bowyer.
The Addicks next match is at Shrewsbury next Saturday.
Charlton: Phillips; Dijksteel, Bauer, Sarr, Solly;Bielik, Pratley, Morgan (Williams 68), Fosu; Taylor, Grant.
Subs (not used): Maynard-Brewer, Stevenson, Marshall, Clarke, Hackett-Fairchild, Ajose.
Goal: James (og) 51.
Sunderland: McLaughlin; O’Nien, Flanagan, Baldwin, James; McGeady, McGeouch, Power, Gooch (Watmore 67); Wyke, Maja (Maguire 84).
Subs (not used): Ruiter, Ozturk, Sinclair, Mumba.
Goal: O’Nien 2.
Booked: Baldwin 38 (foul), Power 52 (foul).
Referee: Steven Martin.
Attn: 16,317 (3,125 Sunderland).