Michael Mifsud followed up his goalscoring heroics against Manchester United by ensuring Coventry City’s follow up to their victory at the Theatre of Dreams was not a return to the arena of grim reality.

The Maltese striker, who scored twice in City’s shock Carling Cup win in midweek, fired a late equaliser to deny promotion-chasing Charlton victory in what was Iain Dowie’s first meeting with the Addicks since his ill-fated spell there last season.

Coventry spent the first half an hour seemingly in dreamland following their exploits at Old Trafford. Not that Charlton were much more animated in the opening period. But once the majority of Pardew’s team had brushed away the cobwebs after a week’s inactivity, the effect was devastating.

Danny Mills lit the blue touch paper by ending a sortie down the right by slipping the ball to Lloyd Sam. There seemed no immediate danger but, allowed to cut inside, Sam not not so much shot as passed the ball across Andy Marshall and into the far corner of the Coventry goal.

Charlton appeared to have been erroneously denied the chance to double their lead midway through the half when Luke Varney, chasing a through-ball into the penalty area, was bundled over by Ben Turner. Referee Neil Swarbrick, however, saw nothing untoward and dismissed the aggrieved Varney’s protests.

With Dowie becoming increasingly agitated on the touchline, Coventry responded by building up a head of steam of their own.

A free kick curled into the six-yard box from Stephen Hughes caused alarm in the away defence and prompted some long-overdue activity in front of Nick Weaver’s goal.

Then, the two-goal hero of Old Trafford, Mifsud, showed the predatory instincts that did for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men with a cross that cannoned to safety off Weaver’s right-hand post.

City’s quest for the equaliser left them vulnerable to the counter-attack and they were indebted to a timely challenge from Hughes that prevented Chris Iwelumo from setting up the unmarked Varney.

With half time imminent, the Sky Blues were similarly grateful to Iwelumo for straying offside and ruining a sweeping move that had Zheng Zhi at its fulcrum.

Predictably, it was City who showed more ambition following the restart and a foul by Jose Semedo on Jay Tabb, which cost the midfielder a caution, gave them their first chance to test Weaver. City wasted that, Hughes ending the setpiece routine in anticlimax by firing into Charlton’s defensive wall.

Weaver finally had a save worthy of the name to make moments later, using his feet to keep out a cross-shot from Mifsud.

And he should have been beaten in the 61st minute after Mifsud’s trickery unlocked the Addicks defence. The Malta international outwitted two defenders on the left before finding the unmarked Leon Best on the far side of the six-yard box. But Best failed to capitalise on the opportunity and scuffed the ball sideways across Weaver’s goal, rather than past him.

Dowie wasted no time in making his feelings known, sin-binning the hapless striker almost immediately and introducing Dele Adebola.

Pardew followed suit by tinkering with his strike force, replacing Varney with the former Derby County and MK Dons striker Izale McLeod.

More profligacy and frustration followed for City, however, after Weaver spilled a routine cross. But, with the ball heading for Michael Doyle and the City keeper grounded, Mills was alert to the danger and hacked it clear.

Dowie responded to his side’s increasing impotence by pushing Robbie Simpson forward, switching from a 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 formation. And the ploy should have worked had Simpson, set up by Mifsud’s pull back, not executed an embarrassing three-off-the-tee airshot.

Fortune and company were living dangerously but their luck finally ran out when Mifsud, who else, scored the equaliser the Sky Blues had long threatened, with yet another shot across Weaver that this time went inside the far post rather than hit it.

Having spent more than an hour in restoring parity, Coventry almost wasted their good work seconds later. Charlton skipper Andy Reid crossed from the right and Iwelumo, faced with just Marshall, headed the ball wide when scoring appeared the simpler option.

Star man: Michael Mifsud (Coventry)

Player ratings. Coventry: Marshall 6, McNamee 6, Turner 6, Ward 6, Borrowdale 6, S Hughes 7, Doyle 6, Tabb 6, Simpson 5, Best 4 (Adebola 64min), Mifsud 8

Charlton: Weaver 6, Mills 6, Bougherra 6, Powell 7, Fortune 6, Sam 6 (Holland 82min), Semedo 7, Zheng 7, Reid 6, Varney 6 (McLeod 66min), Iwelumo 5