Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones has admitted he was furious with this afternoon’s display after suffering a 4-2 defeat against Rotherham United at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.
The Addicks have been in excellent form as of late and travelled to Yorkshire in the midst of a six-game unbeaten run. However, they came crashing back down to Earth with a bang after a series of errors led to a heavy loss against a recently rejuvenated Rotherham.
The Londoners suffered a terrible start and found themselves two goals down within 15 minutes. They pulled one back on the stroke of half time through Miles Leaburn, but the home side immediately restored their two goal lead before the break.
The second half didn’t start any better. Mallik Wilks gave the Millers an unassailable 4-1 lead in the 53rd minute. Matt Godden pulled one back for Charlton in added time but it was a case of too little too late for Nathan Jones’ side.
Jones Fumes At Catastrophic Defending
Speaking to South London News after the game, Jones failed to hide his anger at the performance:
“We were really poor. I didn’t think we did any of the basics right, that you have to win a game. You know when you come here what type of game you’re going to have. They were more aggressive than us, they ran harder than us, they won headers, they won second balls, they held the ball up and we didn’t do any of that.
“The goals are catastrophic, the goals are big, big errors in terms of a lot of things. Didn’t do the basics well, but they’ve had other chances as well. We didn’t defend our box anywhere near.
“They put one ball in, we’re the wrong side, which we were all afternoon, and they end up scoring from not a clean strike. Then a big error from Lloyd. Lloyd’s been excellent for me, he really has, but a big error. And then we get back in the game, right in the stroke of half-time, so you think, right, okay, it could change something.
“And then we immediately go back to today’s default and give the ball away, give a foul away, don’t defend the box, and then they score. At no point do we put them under the pressure that we normally put under teams, and that’s the disappointing thing, because we weren’t us today.”
Writer’s View
This was a really poor performance by Charlton and perhaps one that nobody saw coming, least of all the manager. Jones will be hoping that this was a one-off ahead of the trip to Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night. However, Rotherham are a tough outfit and one that appear to have started to hit their stride. It’s nowhere near panic stations for Charlton yet but it was certainly a wake-up call after their recent good form.
