Charlton skipper Jason Pearce is eager to bounce back from Saturday’s disappointing performance at Middlesbrough and is pleased to have the opportunity to do so quickly with Huddersfield Town coming to The Valley on Tuesday evening.
George Saville’s goal after just 52 seconds was enough to condemn the Addicks to defeat at the Riverside Stadium and a lacklustre display was not able to yield a comeback on Teeside.
But with the Terriers coming to SE7 just three days later, it gives Pearce and his teammates an immediate chance to make amends.
“Whenever you have a bad performance or a bad result, it’s always good to have a game straight away, so that’s a positive,” he explained.
“On behalf of the players, I thank the fans that travelled up [to Middlesbrough] and apologise for the performance. It obviously wasn’t good enough and they’ve travelled a long away to watch us and support us. We’ll do our best as a team and as a squad to try and put that right on Tuesday. We’ll keep fighting and fighting for the shirt and doing our best.”
The defender bemoaned his side’s poor start at the Riverside, but insisted they should have shown more fight on the day, despite the early handicap.
“It was a horrendous start,” he said.
“You want to come away from home and stay solid for 15-20 minutes but we conceded after less than a minute. It was a terrible start and then we just didn’t get going. We weren’t good enough.
“When we’re playing against any team in this league, you have to win the battle first - I’ve said it before. We just didn’t win the battle today. They seemed to want it more than us. First and foremost, you have to win the battle to win any game. We didn’t. So, we’re not going to get anything out of the game. We’re massively disappointed.”
“It was an off-day,” he continued.
“Normally we have a group that gives their all. I don’t think we didn’t give our all, it just wasn’t quite our day. I don’t really know what to say because it just wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to improve and improve quickly.
“We’ve got to hold our hands up, but we’ll try and put that right on Tuesday and hopefully we can get a few more lads back.”
