WHILE the football didn’t sparkle, Mark Davies’s return to action at least supplied a bit of razzle-dazzle to what was a drab old night at the Macron.

The Wanderers midfielder made his first appearance since November to set a comeback in motion, and spare Neil Lennon a second home defeat in four days.

Frederic Bulot had given Charlton an early lead to which the Whites had no answer at all, that is until the introduction of Davies and Emile Heskey with 20 minutes to go.

Within a few minutes Adam Le Fondre was celebrating an equaliser, and Wanderers had a couple of golden opportunities to snatch all three points before the end – which in truth would have masked a pretty poor performance in all.

Lennon made three changes to the side that lost against Norwich, dropping Dean Moxey – implicated in Gary Hooper’s winner – to the bench, and resting veteran pair Eidur Gudjohnsen and Emile Heskey from the start as expected.

Neil Danns, Rochinha and skipper Matt Mills returned but there was a slight tactical tweak as Liam Feeney was pushed up front in a more central role.

The early order seemed to be for Wanderers to get the ball forward as quickly as possible in an attempt to use Feeney’s pace.

And though Barry Bannan went close to threading a couple of passes through for Le Fondre early on, first blood went to Charlton as Bulot took maximum advantage of more slack defending from the Whites.

Ex-Charlton favourite Dorian Dervite lost out to Tony Watt as he tried to clear Chris Solly’s right-wing cross, and the ball dropped invitingly to the unmarked Bulot eight yards out; he simply couldn’t miss.

The visitors defended well to protect their lead – Alou Diarra blocking from Le Fondre and Roger Johnson producing an even more impressive effort to keep out Danns’ pile-driver from the edge of the box.

When Wanderers did get in a decent position they chose the wrong option. Feeney got a volley all wrong when he should have headed towards goal and Tom Walker fluffed the final ball after an encouraging counter attack.

No wonder the sparse Macron crowd were becoming audibly more frustrated as the half wore on.

A poor kick from Adam Bogdan nearly contributed to a second for Charlton, Igor Vetokele spraying the ball quickly out to Bulot, whose cross was headed wastefully over the bar from close range by Watt.

Wanderers gave fans a faint ray of hope with a couple of half chances just before the break for Josh Vela and Le Fondre but in truth it had been a dire 45 minutes of football that surely couldn’t get any worse.

For a good 10 minutes after the restart the Whites severely tested that statement.

The midfield lacked movement, crossing from wide positions was dreadful, and this against a Charlton side virtually thumbing through the pages of the travel brochures as they passed the ball around.

With very little to capture their imagination, fans’ grumbles continued to echo round the Macron. Silence was punctured briefly when referee Kevin Wright failed to spot a foul by Diarra on Rochinha, gesturing for the Portuguese youngster to ‘get up’. The home crowd disagreed, and evidently so did Lennon, who raced outside his technical area to remonstrate with the Peterborough official.

Charlton had barely featured in an attacking sense in the second half by the time Bulot got a chance to make it two on the hour mark.

Played in on goal by Watt, the Gabon international brought a good save out of Bogdan, who then denied Johann Gudmundsson a few moments later.

Wanderers fans kept themselves amused, flashing their phone lights, but the introduction of Davies and Heskey with 20 minutes to go suddenly injected a bit of life into proceedings.

Tim Ream must have been glad to see the back of Watt, who had brought two good saves out of Bogdan before leaving the field. His replacement was a man Bolton fans know only too well – Chris Eagles – playing his first game at the Macron in 14 months.

With 11 minutes left on the clock it was looking a little desperate for Lennon, who had Saidy Janko ready to come on as his last roll of the dice. And then it all clicked.

Heskey laid off to Bannan, who scrapped his way through two challenges to play Le Fondre in for his seventh goal of the season.

Suddenly it was all stations go. Referee Wright waved away a penalty claim before Mills missed a glorious chance six yards out, kicking out at fresh air.

Feeney then had a chance to repair some damage from a poor performance but somehow side-footed over the bar after a great run into the penalty box from Davies.

Three points would have been a little more than Wanderers deserved, considering some of their football on the night harked right back to the darkest days under Dougie Freedman.

But the reappearance of Davies is a timely reminder that there is a silver lining on the horizon once the injury list clears up. Roll on next season!