NATHAN Jones refused to use injuries as an excuse as Charlton Athletic were beaten 1-0 by Exeter City at St James Park at the weekend.
Tristan Crama scored the only goal in the game in the 52nd minute from the Grecians’ thirteenth corner of the contest.
Charlton were without ten players in Devon and have won just one of their last eight games in League One.
Goalkeeper Will Mannion was the latest to be added to the absentee list. Ashley Maynard-Brewer made his first league start of the campaign.
“Will Mannion picked up a thigh injury the other day,” Jones said. “Karoy [Anderson] couldn’t play today, Tayo [Edun] was on the bench but couldn’t really play and then we’ve got a number of other injuries and they are big injuries for us in terms of how we want to be and how we want to play.
“We had enough today to get something from the game and if we get one it is a different game. We had some clear-cut chances today that we should have done better with.”
Matty Godden and Alex Mitchell had late chances to equalise but Charlton are now four league games without a league victory since beating Birmingham City 1-0.
“I thought we were nowhere near first half,” Jones said. “I thought we kept giving the ball away and then they could put the ball in our box and get corners. There was no momentum really. Every time we used structure we looked like we could create something. We didn’t do it enough first half and we let them take initiative.
“The second half was a lot better, we played much more front-footed. We passed the ball better, we went in with quality and had the best chances of the game. We should have got something out of the game.
“We defended twelve corners first half brilliantly and they’ve only had two second half and we didn’t defend them and that was it. They’ve scored from a set-play and we haven’t taken our chances and that was the tale of the game.
“If we made that 45-minute performance [in the second half] a 90-minute performance, we suddenly become the team we want to be.
We’ve got a few injuries in terms of some big players. We’ve got to make sure we bounce back from this. We went six without defeat and now we have a defeat, so we’ve got to go again but we’ve got to be winning more games. We’ve had to batten down the hatches a little bit and we’ve got people coming back and the sooner that that can happen the better.”
Charlton’s League One game against Peterborough United scheduled for The Valley on Saturday has been postponed due to International call-ups. Kaheim Dixon and Karoy Anderson have been called up by Jamaica and Thierry Small by the England under-20s.
Their next league game is at Huddersfield Town on November 23.
