Dean Holden said his side needed to be more effective in both penalty areas as the Addicks conceded an injury time goal to lose 2-1 to Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night.
“We’re conceding poor goals at the moment,” he said. “We need to be more clinical in both boxes and that’s the only thing that’s letting us down at the moment.”
“Ash [Maynard-Brewer] has made a really good save from the free kick and nobody’s reacted,” he continued. “There are three or four that are there for the tap-in and that’s not good enough.”
“And for the second, we don’t react well enough and don’t mark well enough in the box. And it’s a bit of a sucker punch.”
Despite being unable to convert their chances, the boss was pleased with the first-half performance. “I thought we started the first half well. I thought we had some good chances. They had one moment in the first half where we’ve not got tight enough and they’ve had that one chance,” he said.
“There were some real big moments around their box. We’re just not capitalising on those big moments in the box. Alfie [May] has had some chances first half, Corey [Blackett-Taylor] the same.”
After a difficult spell following Rovers’ first goal, the Manager was also pleased with his side’s reaction. “We got that goal back and we really put our foot to the gas. We should have come out with at least a point - there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
Holden was keen to stress that, despite losing in such difficult circumstances, the team will not be making excuses.
“The last thing we’re going to do is feel sorry for ourselves,” he said. “It’s up to us to keep everybody bubbling, make sure we keep the positivity about the place. We’re not far away from that next three points.”
Charlton now look to get back to winning ways on Saturday when Port Vale visit SE7.
