CHRIS PERRY has not scored many goals during his long career – and none of them will have been more important than his equaliser against Manchester City at The Valley on Saturday.

Just when it seemed as though the Addicks were heading for their second straight home defeat – having lost 4-1 to West Brom a fortnight ago - Perry snatched an unlikely goal deep into stoppage time to secure a 2-2 draw.

Charlton’s challenge for a coveted European place would have been seriously dented if they had been beaten but, instead, they sit in eighth place and still in contention for a top seven finish.

Perry is one of the few Charlton players to have experienced European football, having been part of Tottenham’s Worthington Cup winning side in 1999 that qualified for the UEFA Cup.

Spurs defeated FC Zimbru, of Moldova, before going out to German side Kaiserslautern and, although it was a short-lived campaign, Perry saw enough to know that he would like another crack at Europe with the Addicks.

The 31-year-old said: "I am obviously getting on a bit now, and my career is coming towards an end, so it would be fantastic to get into Europe again. It is a completely different experience going to these places. They have different styles of play and techniques and that sort of thing.

"I think a club like Charlton probably deserves to be there after the amount they have achieved over the last 10 to 15 years. It would be a fitting honour for them.

"We haven’t spoken about it much, but the boss has mentioned that we are in the mix and have really got as good a chance as anyone of nicking that seventh spot. That is our aim at the moment, but we have obviously got to perform better than we did in the first half against Manchester City."

Perry’s strike saved the Addicks from another round of accusations about them falling away in the latter stages of the season.

It was the first goal since February 2004 for a player who claims he usually doesn’t even go over the halfway line in training.

Perry said: "I just played the ball inside to Danny Murphy and saw Luke Young had a good chance of getting the ball into the box. I thought why not try to get as many people into the box as we can? I decided to try my luck and it worked. I might go out and buy a lottery ticket now."

Meanwhile, manager Alan Curbishley confessed that the side missed the suspended Talal El Karkouri and the injured Radostin Kishishev on Saturday.

He said: "We missed them because they are players with more than a little aggression.

"We do need to improve the squad, bring some fresh faces in. That’s what we’ll endeavour to do when the transfer window opens. We know the positions we want to strengthen."