Dean Holden didn’t feel his side did the ‘basics’ well enough in Saturday’s defeat against Derby County in Sky Bet League One.
The Addicks arrived at Pride Park looking to secure a fourth successive league away win for the first time since September 2011.
Holden's side fell behind early on to David McGoldrick’s penalty and despite working their way into proceedings as the game wore on, Eiran Cashin’s 70th-minute header put the game to bed for the Rams.
The gaffer told CharltonTV that his side faced an uphill task following their slow start.
He said: “To concede a goal inside 10 minutes against a team that is flying made it very difficult. We responded better in the second half and most of the second period, I thought, was played in their half of the pitch.
“As we were getting back into it we gave away a cheap ball. They [Derby] came forward and won a free-kick and then we have got to defend better. They were better than us in both boxes today - it is as simple as that.”
The Manager was left frustrated with his side’s decision-making in Derbyshire.
He added: “There were far too many unforced errors in our play today. To come here and get anything we needed to be better in every department. For the first goal, we let the ball into our box too easily and that led to the penalty. These are the basic things that we need to be better at.
“We had a lot of good moments going forward but a bad touch or careless pass just killed that momentum. We couldn’t get our wide players involved as much as we wanted.”
Up next for the Addicks is a home fixture against promotion-chasing Sheffield Wednesday at The Valley on Saturday.
Holden said: “This is the part of the division that we want to be in. At times this season we have shown that we are a very good team. You have got to be bang at it every single week and there were some good parts to our performance today, but there were also too many things that let us down. Sadly, that culminated in us not getting a positive result."
Holden and his players thanked the traveling Addicks for their support at Pride Park, with around 1,500 having made the trip to the East Midlands.
He said: “I know what they are giving to us in terms of the backing they give us. Every time you lose a game you feel for the fans. I’ll always go an applaud them win, lose or draw; it is the right thing to do."
