There was disappointment for Charlton Athletic when they put in a flat performance at home to Portsmouth to end their three game Sky Bet Division Championship unbeaten run. 

John Mousinho, Portsmouth’s manager was first up. “We’re delighted with the result and I think that the performance matched the result as well.” he said. “In the first minute Nico (Nicolas Scmid) pulled off that huge save which was really disappointing from our defensive aspect but I think that after that we controlled the game. The first goal settled us down and after that from the first and the third goal we were superb and played some really good football. 

“When we went three goals up, I think the mentality wasn’t quite where it needed to be. We made a few poor decisions and even for the goal that we conceded we were a little bit gung-ho, a little bit too aggressive. As soon as we conceded it we started to defend the set pieces a bit better so it’s just making sure that we don’t get too carried away at three-nil.”

He continued “I thought that we’d lost control so we decided to change shape and get an extra defender in there so we brought Bow (Ibane Bowat) on to give us a bit of extra protection at the back. With the changes that Charlton made they were a bit of a different threat to what they were in the first half so we had a lot of different things to deal with. 

“I think with (Jayden) Fevrier on with (Tyreece) Campbell on the left hand side, then joined by joined in attack (Kayne) Ramsey who came more into the game in the second half we needed to be more solid at the back as Charlton became more and more direct. After that spell when we lost the plot for twenty minutes, I thought we settled down and it didn’t feel comfortable on the sidelines at all but I think when we watch the game back we’ll see that it was a decent way to end the game.”

Charlton manager, Nathan Jones, pretty much echoed those views. “We were poor tonight.” he said. We had a glorious opportunity after the first minute which would have really set the tone for the night but we missed that. I can moan about the goals because it’s gone straight through our goalkeeper. It shouldn’t go in. The second one’s a penalty. It’s hit his chest first and then a handball, and then they’ve scored another one from distance.

“We’ve had chances from five yards. TC (Campbell) has had another chance so probably we’ve had the better chances on the night but in between both boxes, we got dominated physically and that’s not like us.”

When Charlton did get it forward it came straight back out again. Jones said “It didn’t stick and when it came back into midfield they got on it so their three were better than our three for man for man in midfield and then they were able to then get out of any pressure. We couldn’t sustain anything.”

On a slightly brighter note, Jayden Fevrier came off the substitutes bench for his home debut and scored his first goal for the Addicks. “There were very few positives but that was one.” Jones added “I thought his performance level was very good. He effected the game when he came on and delivered the ball for (Lyndon) Dykes, scored, flashed one past the post, gives us energy, something different so I’ve got no problem with his performance.”

Picture supplied by Keith Gillard.