Olly Groome reports from The Den
Karl Robinson emphasised the importance of the January transfer window to his side following Wednesday evening’s disappointing 3-1 defeat to Millwall at The Den.
The Addicks boss said he was “gutted” by the derby loss and lamented the number of injuries affecting his squad, while revealing his wish to bring players in to boost the ranks next month.
Karl Robinson: Karl, how disappointed were you by that this evening?
KR: “It’s as low as you get as a professional in this game, when you lost to a rival it’s always difficult.
“If I’m honest, I thought the derby was keenly contested and in some ways, I thought we shaded the first half.
“The second half was criminal. Since I came in, there’s been too many mistakes and January can’t come quick enough. We need to shake things up. We have a lot of players that I feel I have to bring in and that was always the case, it was always about getting through December.
“The appetite was certainly there to get back to 2-1, but again it was naïve defending for their third.
“We’re a very injury-hit squad at the moment. We haven’t got Rudd, Pearce, Solly, Holmes, Novak, and it’s going to have an impact on us. Fredrik Ulvestad wasn’t fit either and we’ve had to rely on players who can’t play week in, week out because they haven’t played all season. The likes of Jordan Botaka and young Ezri Konsa are certainly looking a bit fatigued in that element. I’m gutted.”
Q: It’s five games without a win, are you desperate for a win at MK Dons?
KR: “It’s not about being desperate to win, it’s about being desperate to bring players in to start winning.
“If we won a game, it would be masking an awful lot of problems, to be totally honest. We’ve got to bring players in very quickly because there are certain aspects with the club that I’m not happy with, and they know that.
“For too long, too many fingers have been pointed in so many different directions and we need to stand up to the responsibility on the pitch and in the dugout.
“Tonight was about us and we were not good enough and they saw the game out very well.”