GLENN ROEDER is not proving to be the most convincing of caretaker managers. A record of three clean sheets and four matches without defeat is one that the next permanent manager of Newcastle United would embrace fervently, never mind a stand-in plucked from the club’s youth academy. Last night’s may have been the least edifying match of Roeder’s interregnum, but his team are no longer pushovers.

Roeder maintains that the full-time job does not appeal to him, but a solid case is being mounted to the contrary. Injuries took a severe toll on his resources last night — the match drifted to an unsatisfactory end, with Newcastle reduced to their only three fit defenders — but there was none of the self-pity that accompanied the dog days of the previous regime. They clung on.

With a little more adventure, Charlton Athletic might have taken advantage of Newcastle’s limitations, but Alan Curbishley’s 500th competitive fixture in sole charge of his team was muted. As the final whistle neared, there was a brief flurry of activity around Shay Given’s goal, but the visiting team did not deserve victory.

A draw was, in itself, a rare reward. Charlton have mustered only two points from their past eight games away from home and are twelfth in the table, but they trail Arsenal, who are fifth, by only seven points. They are at home to Aston Villa this weekend.

“By Saturday evening we’ll be able to tell a lot about where we’re heading this season,” Curbishley said. “We’ve been in great positions in previous years, but our run-ins have been terrible.”

Curbishley conceded that this match “looked like stalemate all along”, that “no one deserved to win it” and that “it would have been cruel if either side had lost”. The analysis was impossible to challenge.

Charlton played with a conservative five men in midfield and barely troubled Given, while Newcastle, without Alan Shearer and Kieron Dyer, lacked authority in attack. If nothing else, Roeder has given Freddy Shepherd, the chairman, scope to luxuriate over his search for a permanent replacement for Graeme Souness; there is no feeling that Newcastle are on the verge of crisis. Supporters will hope for better fare than this, although their despair will be tempered by the knowledge that this was a match that, until recently, might have been lost.

Jean-Alain Boumsong was again lightweight, Titus Bramble limped off early in the second half clutching a hamstring, Albert Luque was an ineffectual substitute and their penetration was minimal, but Roeder has moulded Newcastle into a unit. “Nobody could criticise the effort of the players,” he said.

More of it beckons. Bramble and Dyer, who scored in his first start since August during last Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Southampton, face an absence of up to three weeks, joining Michael Owen, Steven Taylor and Stephen Carr on the sidelines. For Dyer, whose brittle hamstrings have been undermined by a persistent and complex medical complaint, the news is particularly worrying.

“Seventy minutes last weekend might have tested Kieron a bit too much and tightness caught him out,” Roeder said. “At the moment, there isn’t a major concern about what the scan is showing, but of course he’s really disappointed. We can’t say we’re back to square one with him, but it’s a bit of a setback. The problem is that he’s played so little football.”

Lacking so many key players, Newcastle struggled for impetus. In the 76th minute, from a corner taken by Emre Belözoglu, Shola Ameobi missed from close range. “A free header, six yards; Shola’s very unhappy in the dressing-room because he knows he had the opportunity to win the game,” Roeder said. “He’s criticised for not scoring enough goals, he takes that on his broad shoulders and he’s doing his best to rectify that.”

Charlton should have been alert to the opportunity in front of them, but while Darren Bent increasingly utilised his pace on the counter-attack, they remained insipid going forward. In a match that was rearranged from late December because of heavy snowfall, the Londoners did not display the vigour of hardy travellers.

NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-1-1): S Given — P Ramage, T Bramble (sub: A Luque, 56), J-A Boumsong, R Elliott — N Solano, S Parker, L Bowyer, C N’Zogbia — Emre Belözoglu — F Ameobi. Substitutes not used: S Harper, A Faye, L Clark, M Chopra. Booked: Parker.

CHARLTON ATHLETIC (4-5-1): T Myhre — L Young, C Perry, H Hreidarsson, J Spector — M Bent, M Holland, R Kishishev, B Hughes (sub: J Euell, 70), D Ambrose — D Bent. Substitutes not used: T El Karkouri, C Powell, D Randolph, J Bothroyd. Booked: Young, Ambrose.

Referee: U Rennie.