As Lincoln City defeated them 3-1 at the LNER Stadium on Tuesday night, Michael Appleton was dissatisfied with his team’s level of dedication.
Just tonight, we didn’t give ourselves a chance. He said to CharltonTV, “We didn’t compete with them enough. And there’s only going to be one possible outcome if you do that against a physically strong opponent like Lincoln, and that’s exactly what happened.
Alfie May had put the Addicks ahead after ten minutes, and the manager was happy with the way things were going. However, he clarified that following that, his teammates stopped complying with his requests.
“We did start okay, because we started to sort of play the ball in behind and down the side of them,” he said. “Then we got caught playing in front of them a little bit. We weren’t brave enough in that second period of the first half. We were asking Ash [Maynard-Brewer] to take far too many goal kicks and it was just going into their big centre-halves and coming straight back.”
Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: “Once the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didn’t really think they could get back in the game. I’ve not seen that yet, so that’s something that I’m certainly aware of tonight and I don’t want it to happen again.”
The gaffer took some positives from the night, most importantly the fact that this loss should help keep his players grounded.
“Sometimes these nights can be good for everybody, because it certainly stops people getting carried away,” he said.
With Bolton Wanderers visiting the Valley on Saturday, the gaffer also took heart in the fact that some of the Addicks’ best games have come against big sides at home.
“We’ve seen with the group that they are capable of winning those types of games,” he said. We’ve faced some respectable teams thus far, and if anything, the performance has become better as the club has grown.
It is located in the Valley, which has been kind to us lately. There, we’ve put up a lot of goals while giving up few, so maybe that will continue on Saturday.
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