A proud Dean Holden spoke to CharltonTV after his side’s battling performance in the Carabao Cup quarter-final loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The Addicks competed with the Premier League giants and were in the game until two stoppage-time goals from England international Marcus Rashford secured a 3-0 victory for the Red Devils.
Speaking to CharltonTV after the game Holden said: “I said that to the players after the game, ‘I'm proud of the performance’. You could we see were disappointed with the result in the end because I thought we deserved more than that, if we're being fair. The players were disappointed, which is a good sign.
“The supporters knew there was a performance in there. All the promises that they would run through brick walls and I thought we did that tonight. For 20 minutes early on they were giving us problems on wide and we rode our luck a little bit with a couple of blocks, having said that Ryan Inniss takes one right in the face. Premier League teams come here and have to ride their luck. After that we grew into the game, I thought we showed real belief in the way that we passed the ball, we had so many moments to counterattack and we just couldn't find that pass or the final moment.
“We come out second half full of belief. We were the better team, I think it's fair to say for 15 minutes. We've had Fraser's chance, he puts over the bar and I turned around and Erik ten Hag is bringing on Casemiro, Eriksen and Rashford and obviously for a reason because he could see that we had a bit of control at that point.
“The goals, Antony scored a world class finished the first one, but we've got to show him on the outside, on his right foot. Casemiro’s pass for the second goal and turnover, that is what this level is all about. The third one Rashford does what he does.
“I thought it was harsh on us at 3-0, to be honest. I couldn’t have been prouder of the performance and you can see the connection, we're building it every day.
“The biggest thing is that we've shown ourselves as a football club and what we're all about, arguably we could have got a bit closer in the game with some of the chances.”
8,818 supporters travelled to Old Trafford for the game – Charlton’s largest away following in more than 20 years.
Holden explained: “The biggest thing of all this now is we've got to use this, this energy. You could feel the energy in the stadium, they come here and had a right go our supporters against the 70,000, we had 9,000 and you could hear them all night and you could see the reaction at the end.
“This can now be the after the Lord Mayor's show against Barnsley on Saturday. We have to find a performance on Saturday that we've done in the previous two league games to really kick start our season.
“We've got ourselves into a decent position now up and around that mid table and we know we need to get the hammer down and keep pushing.”
The Addicks host Barnsley at The Valley on Saturday. Click here to get your ticket.
Supporters can watch the full interview below.