Alan Pardew felt Charlton should have been through to the FA Cup fourth round after they were held to a 1-1 draw by West Brom at The Valley.Zheng Zhi fired the Addicks ahead after less than 90 seconds, but Ishmael Miller levelled with a close-range finish 10 minutes before the interval.

West Brom keeper Dean Kiely, who played for six-and-a-half years for Charlton, then took centre stage for a series of fine saves to secure a replay neither of the Championship promotion hopefuls wanted.

But Pardew took plenty of positives from his side's performance, especially as it came so soon after a defeat to lowly Colchester on New Year's Day in which another familiar face, Kevin Lisbie, scored twice.

"I was pleased. We let everyone down on New Year's Day and we corrected that," said Pardew. "There was some really good performance from some young players, and it was a shame we didn't have a bigger crowd to see it.

"But we should have won. Dean Kiely played really well. We seem to have a habit of making our old players look good at the moment."

Charlton were beaten 4-2 by West Brom back in December, prior to the Christmas period that yielded three draws and a defeat, but the Addicks are still in the Championship promotion hunt, and Pardew saw enough to suggest the table-topping Baggies could yet be overhauled.

"I don't think there is much difference in the teams, except in the goalscoring charts," Pardew added. "Hopefully, we will see more goals from our young forwards over the second half of the season.

"I thought we were the better side and psychologically that will help us."

There was little evidence of magic of the FA Cup as two teams who have rarely troubled the latter stages of the competition in recent memory ran out in front of a disappointing crowd.

The fact both managers left out their top scorers - Chris Iwelumo and Kevin Phillips, respectively - suggested neither would shed two many tears if they were not in the hat of the fourth round.

West Brom boss Tony Mowbray admitted as much, saying: "The FA Cup falls below promotion to the Premier League.

"That's not a slur on the FA Cup, it's just a sensible answer. Getting in to the Premier League is of more benefit to this club than trying to get past the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal to win the FA Cup."

Zheng struck in the second minute after Darren Ambrose headed Lloyd Sam's cross into his path, but the visitors responded with their first meaningful attack.

Chris Brunt meandered down the left and crossed for Miller, who slammed the ball past Nicky Weaver.

After the break, Kiely kept out efforts from Izale McLeod and Luke Varney to ensure Mowbray's men would be in Monday's draw - whether they like it or not.

"We needed Dean to have a good game, but he performed well all season for us," added Mowbray.

"What we saw was the product of what we have all been through. We've played a lot of games and that was under-par from us."

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