Dean Holden was disappointed with his side’s lack of urgency as they suffered a 3-1 defeat at Newport County in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
“We had the game by the scruff of the neck and we just didn’t show enough to then go and take the game away from them,” he said. “That’s the disappointing thing really.”
“We had total dominance in the game,” he continued. “It was the 64th minute when they scored and the stadium was completely silent [up until then]. We had total dominance but we didn’t show enough urgency and that’s probably a mentality thing.”
The boss pointed to mistakes at vital moments as the reason why the Addicks conceded the three goals. “Ultimately, how we’ve ended up losing the game 3-1 is by not defending well,” he said.
“All three goals were really poor. We lost the ball in good areas. Obviously one of the goals the lad slips and there’s not a lot you can do about that, but we’re not marking well enough for the second one in the box, and the first one we gave the ball away in a key area.
“We shouldn’t be coming here and losing 3-1. It should never be happening to us,” he added.
Holden made 10 changes from the win against Leyton Orient, but still managed to put out a strong side. “We needed to get minutes into players’ legs, and that’s the reason for the changes,” he said.
“Tayo Edun, Terry Taylor, Panutche Camará... they’re coming into the game but they can’t play for 90 minutes either, so we knew we’d need to make changes for them,” said the Manager. “Certain players are not able to play Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday. That’s just the way it is.
“I’m not going to stand here and say there’s many positives to take,” he concluded. “But it’s good to get minutes into them as the season progresses.”
