Speaking after Charlton's hard-fought 0-0 draw against Fulham at The Valley on Wednesday night, Lee Bowyer was content with his sides 'excellent' performance.
"It’s a decent point against a very, very good Fulham side. They had good players everywhere that can hurt you and they’re comfortable in possession. Their centre-halves are good players. They don’t care and they take chances at times but they move the ball well. From the first minute to the last minute.
"I just said to my players 'you were excellent'. No switching off. What Fulham do is they move the ball and they keep rotating as individuals and they try and find a dummy and capitalise on someone that has switched off.
"None of my players switched off and we were excellent defensively and, on another night, we might have nicked it. Alfie went through and had a chance. There was great defending at the end there when Lyle [Taylor] went through and whipped in a cross, Jonny [Williams] has got a tap in and the fella outstretched the leg to block it.
"We had to hit them on the break but come on, we’re playing against a Premiership side now. I thought we deserved the point.
"Tonight, I’m really proud of the players. They gave me everything like they always do and on another night, we could have taken all three points. But I’m happy with one."
Prior to the game, it was announced that Bowyer had signed a new contract extension, keeping him in SE7 until at least 2023 and he shared his excitement with committing his future at Charlton.
"I’m over the moon. Like I said, I love the club. Me and my staff have worked hard to get the club to where it is. And we want to get it further and build so I’m delighted. Three years is a good contract for me.
"Five years doesn’t make sense. Alan Pardew signed an eight-year contract and left after 12 months. No one signs them nowadays. We’ve made it realistic and the most important thing is that we have time to rebuild and I’m excited about it."
Attention for the remainder of January now turns to getting players through the door and Bowyer was able to shed some light on what has been going on behind the scenes.
"We’ve been hard at work before the start of January. Steve [Gallen] and myself put a list together way before the start of January. You can tell because we brought Andre [Green] in on the 1st didn’t we? So we worked long before and then with the takeover we didn’t know if it was there or not just like everyone else didn’t.
"So, we were prepared and we’ve got players that we have given to the chairman and he’s working hard behind the scenes to make things happen.
"There hasn’t been this much dealing so far in this window but I’m hopeful that the chairman will bring something. We’re two players down from before the window. The Chairman recognises that and is working hard to change that and strengthen us.
"Putting that aside I’ve got players coming back which is just as important to me, because I know what a group I have. The intensity this week has just gone through the roof because there’s competition for places. People are now thinking ‘I want to be playing in your place, I’m coming back now'. That is what it was like at the start of the season before we had all the injuries. Hopefully now that pushes us on for the rest of the season."