CHARLTON’S cup campaigns are over but boss Michael Appleton said there were big differences between tonight’s 4-2 EFL Trophy loss at Reading and Saturday’s 2-0 FA Cup setback at Gillingham.
The Addicks delivered arguably their worst display under Appleton since his appointment along the A2 at the weekend as they tamely exited the FA Cup at Priestfield.
But this evening there was a notable improvement, even if the outcome was ultimately the same.
Alfie May put the Addicks in front shortly before the interval, only for Charlie Savage to equalise in the second-half and set up a penalty shootout.
Reading scored all four of their spot-kicks, but May and Louie Watson both missed theirs to ensure it was the Royals who went through to the next round 4-2.
Appleton told Charlton TV: “They are only disappointing because we lost. I thought tonight’s game was very different from Saturday.
“We were poor on Saturday and everything about us was poor on Saturday. I didn’t think that was the case tonight.
“I thought there was lots of good things tonight with good opportunities for both teams. It was a really good game of football.
“So yes, disappointing to go out but not in terms of performance, effort and attitude. I certainly didn’t have that lacking tonight.
“Going forward, if they give me the type of attitude they’ve shown tonight, we add a little bit more quality, keep players on the pitch then we should be ok.”
Charlton will attempt to bounce back from the two straight defeats this weekend when they host struggling Cambridge in the league.
And the boss sees no reason why they can’t return to winning ways having already demonstrated the ability to do just that in late October.
“Absolutely and they are more than capable of doing that,” the Valley supremo said.
“They’ve done that in the past this year after the Lincoln and the Bolton games.
“The difference with those two games is they’ve cost us six points, whereas the last two games really other than having an extended cup run hasn’t cost us any points.
“There’s no excuses now, our focus will be absolutely 100 percent on the league.”
Appleton also provided an injury update on Lloyd Jones and George Dobson, who both came off the worse for wear at the Royals.
“It was more precautionary,” the manager revealed.
“Lloydie got a knock to his foot on Saturday.
“He felt fine before the game in terms of being able to cope with it but he was just getting a little bit sore as the game went on.
“We didn’t want to take any chances at half-time and that’s why we made the substitution, obviously bearing in mind we’ve got an important game on Saturday.
“Dobbo just felt his groin a little bit and he felt it in the early parts of the second-half. It didn’t settle.
“He seems to be reasonably confident he will be fine for Saturday, it was just again precautionary.”
