JUST when pre-season looked to have gone off without a hitch – along comes another injury blow.

Derik Osede limped off in the second half of Wanderers’ entertaining 2-2 draw with Charlton Athletic and must now be a major doubt for the start of the new Championship season.

It marred a good night of football, where Zach Clough returned to the Whites’ line-up and played alongside Mark Davies for the first time.

Darren Pratley and Liam Feeney had twice given Wanderers the lead, dragged back both times by ex-Celtic striker Tony Watt.

But the overriding emotion of the night was one of worry for new defensive signing Derik, who looked in pain as he was helped off the field and down the tunnel shortly after half time.

Wanderers had Ben Amos to thank for keeping Charlton out early on. Making his first appearance back at the Macron since the 1-1 draw against Blackpool in March, the keeper was in belligerent form, blocking one close-range effort from Watt with his legs and then making an even more impressive stop from Jordan Cousins’ downward header.

The Londoners looked a yard sharper than the Whites in the early stages and moved the ball around well, but they were aided in their cause by some nervous defending on the right flank by their former defender Lawrie Wilson.

The full-back was twice caught in possession in the opening 20 minutes and was bailed out on one occasion by a brilliantly-timed tackle from Josh Vela to deny Watt a clear run on goal.

At times it resembled a training exercise of attack versus defence but thankfully, Charlton were struggling to find a killer pass to match all their neat work in and around the penalty box and so 24 minutes in, Wanderers hit them with a real sucker punch.

Stephen Dobbie floated in a free kick, glanced on by Pratley and into the net. It was as simple as that.

For all of the Londoners’ intricacy, it was the straightforward stuff that had done the trick for Wanderers.

Gary Madine has been in rude form during pre-season but his first half was a frustrating affair. The striker was clearly anxious to impress in front of a smattering of his home supporters but looked a little rushed whenever he got a sight of goal.

Both he and Stephen Dobbie had half-chances to grab a second, or at least feed a team-mate closer to goal, only to waste the opportunity. And eventually that wastefulness cost them, as Watt strode through from a suspiciously offside position to grab an equaliser just before half time.

Though it had been an excellent pass to find him from midfielder El-Hadji Ba, Watt could hardly believe he had not been flagged as he skipped through to place the ball past Amos.

While it spoiled the mood at little heading into the break it was hard to argue that Charlton did not deserve to be level on balance of play.

Lennon also realised that his own tactics needed a little tweak, bringing off Dobbie for Feeney at the interval.

And oh my, what an immediate response he got.

Straight from the kick-off Wanderers pressed forward on to the edge of the Charlton box. Davies picked up the ball, danced around three defenders and then played a pass for Feeney to power home a shot from the angle.

The goal brought about a giddy scream of delight from a scant crowd of 4,541, many of whom sounded like fans of the younger generation.

But their joy was short-lived. Just a few moments later Derik Osede had to be helped off the field with what looked like a nasty knee injury

To make matters worse, Charlton took just four more minutes to grab an equaliser, and there was no element of controversy about this one.

Sub Cristian Ceballos tore down the left, beating Wilson, and producing a perfect cross for Watt to finish crisply for his second.

Lennon will have been happy with the response and with a little more composure his side would have gone ahead again.

Clough nearly connected with an audacious overhead kick from Pratley’s cross, Feeney drove another effort inches wide and then Wanderers had a penalty appeal for handball turned down.

The usual procession of substitutions followed, including a return to the Macron for Jay Spearing – his first appearance on this particular pitch since December last year.

But Wanderers remained on top. Clough brought a superb save out of former Bury loanee Nick Pope, holding his head in disbelief as the Charlton keeper pushed aside his shot with 13 minutes remaining.

Emile Heskey then joined the party, his first act to win possession for Liam Trotter to swing a cross for Madine, whose shot was first blocked by Naby Sarr and then poked wide by Feeney.

Once again Feeney was in the thick of the action and he could have given Wanderers the lead for a third time with just a few minutes left on the clock, skewing a volley disappointingly wide.

But for Derik’s injury it had been an encouraging second half. If Wanderers can avoid much more bad luck of that kind, perhaps we’ll see more entertaining evenings like this at the Macron this season?

Wanderers: Amos; Wilson, Derik (Holding 57), Dervite, Moxey; Vela (Danns 66); Pratley (Trotter 73), Dobbie (Feeney 46), Davies (Spearing 73); Clough, (Heskey 80) Madine.

Subs not used: Fitzsimons, Taylor.