JOSH Edwards and Nathan Jones identified giving away set-pieces as a big problem as Charlton Athletic lost successive games for the first time under the manager.
Jordan Roberts scored the only goal of the game in the 67th minute to give hosts Stevenage the three points.
The Addicks dropped down to eighth in the League One table after their third defeat in eight games.
Defender Edwards made his first appearance since the 1-0 win over Leyton Orient in August.
“It’s obviously gutting, you don’t want to come back into the team and lose the game. It’s nice to be back but not really after that performance, I don’t think any of us are happy after that,” Edwards said on Charlton TV. “We just need to dust ourselves down, really stick together and get back to winning ways because we can’t have back-to-back defeats.
“I think the first half we were alright, he first 20 minutes or so. We didn’t make it easy for ourselves and eventually we kept giving away set pieces which is what they want, to put the balls in our box, although we did defend it fairly well, it’s just putting pressure on us.
“It’s a really poor goal to lose from our side, so we need to look at that as well. We’ll look back it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s one of them which, as a defender, you hate conceding – a fast breakaway, we’ll look at it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Edwards added: ”I’m glad to be back. It looked bad, I’ve seen it back myself and obviously my ankle isn’t meant to be at that angle.
“I’m glad to be back but today has put a bit of a dampener on it. That’s football, I’m sure we’ll bounce back stronger.”
Charlton are on the road again on Tuesday against Bristol Rovers.
Edwards said: “It’s the best thing, after a defeat like that, just to get back out and do it again. Hopefully we’ll go back out there and put a much better performance than we have been the last couple of games and go and pick up the three points.
“The fans were great today, it’s just disappointing we couldn’t give them something to get behind. A poor performance from us. We’ll do everything we can to make it right so they do have something to shout about next time out.”
Jones made six changes to the side that was beaten 2-1 by Blackpool at The Valley last weekend.
“When you come here you know you have to do the basics well,” Jones said. “We gave silly free-kicks away and we did that all afternoon. It allowed them to get a foothold of the game in terms of corners, set-plays and things. We couldn’t get a rhythm. We were too nice to play against today. I didn’t see the relentlessness about us.
“I thought we were excellent in the first 20 minutes, we penned them in and our structure looked good. Then we stopped doing it. We stopped playing with tempo and allowed them to get a foothold in the game. We had opportunities, Chuks [Aneke]’s chance is a great one, if he hits the target it’s in. [Macaulay] Gillesphey had a chance as well.”
Jones added: “It’s really good that we have a game after, we can’t dwell on this. We have to go into another game and get a result.
“It’s disappointing to have faced back-to-back defeats. I don’t like doing that and we haven’t done that since I’ve been here. It’s a tough one to take, we have to bounce back and that’s what we will be looking to do.”
