MICHAEL Appleton has explained his decision to substitute leading scorer Alfie May in tonight’s 2-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers.
May has been playing out wide in recent games and almost fired the Addicks ahead on 70 seconds, only to see his shot hit the bar.
It was a bright start from the visitors, who went close just moments later when Lloyd Jones fired just wide.
Bristol Rovers became better as the opening period wore on and saw a 38th minute effort from Aaron Collins ruled out for offside.
They took the lead midway through the second half when Collins found substitute Chris Martin in plenty of space and the experienced striker slotted home.
Chem Campbell and May made way for Louie Watson and Tyreece Campbell in the 77th minute, a decision which didn’t go down well in the away end.
It was Campbell who provided the ball which fellow substitute Slobodan Tedic tapped in to draw Charlton back on terms.
But all the good work was undone in stoppage time as Collins turned provider again for Martin to fire in from close range and consign Appleton’s side to back-to-back defeats.
On the decision to hook May, the Valley boss told Charlton TV: “I’ll answer the Alfie one because I know everyone (will be asking).
“He’s been struggling. It was lucky that we got 70/75 minutes or whatever it is out of him because he has been struggling with his back.
“Yesterday he wasn’t playing. Today he made himself fit and available, which is a testament to him.
“You could probably see if you watched him in a little bit of detail about him and the way he was moving, you could just tell he was struggling.
“So he did great to come through the amount of minutes that he did and we are grateful for that.
“Then it was up to the lads coming off the bench to try and finish the job off and they made an impact to be fair to them.
“They got the goal – one created it, one scored it.”
Following tonight’s results Charlton are now 14 points adrift of the final play-off place currently occupied by Monday’s opponents Oxford United.
Appleton will be taking on one of his former sides and believes it is the perfect opportunity to bounce back at The Valley from the two festive defeats on the road at Leyton Orient and tonight.
He said: “The easiest thing in life is being negative – and from my point of view it is so important in these moments that people stick together.
“That group will pick itself up because I’ll make sure it picks itself up and it will have a right go at Oxford on Monday.
“They’ll put a performance in, similar to what they did tonight.
“I think the fact we are at home, I’d like to think that because we are at home we will get that extra lift that we want and need.”
Appleton added: “It is one of them where, in these type of moments, you get to have a little bit of an understanding of who you are, who the people around you are.
“The football club as a whole it needs to come together, because we’ve got three or four academy graduates out there tonight, whether that is starting the game or coming on to the pitch, and they will be the future of Charlton.
“And if we want the future of Charlton to be bright and be more progressive and have more success, then people like the three or four you’ve seen tonight – or maybe more of them – they need looking after.”
