ALFIE May admits he was sad to see Dean Holden lose his job as manager of Charlton last weekend.
A run of five straight league and cup defeats cost Holden his job and the search for a successor remains ongoing with Jason Pearce currently in temporary control.
Striker May was signed by Holden in the summer from Cheltenham Town and scored both of the Addicks’ goals as they came from behind to beat Fleetwood Town 2-1 and stop the rot on Saturday.
But although disappointed to see Holden pay the ultimate price, the 30-year-old has been around the game long enough to know things quickly move on.
May said: “Listen, it is a sad day when the manager goes, especially for the players the gaffer brought in.
“But I think everybody understands it’s football. It is a shame really because we are the players on the pitch and unfortunately the manager loses out.
“It is not a nice thing at all.
“On Monday morning we turned up to training as normal and we prepped for Fleetwood.
“We are all here to win. We want to succeed so it is sort of about you feel sorry (for Holden) but we have to go again.”
He added: “I don’t think the performances have been bad. I think we had one bad 45 minutes against Oxford in the first half.
“I think we are very close. We’ve made new signings (on deadline day) and we go into Monday and build for Crawley on Tuesday.
“Then we’ve got a little break for the internationals but we probably wanted the (Wigan) game on because you build that momentum where you just want to keep going and playing games.
“We do this job for a living – we want to play football.
“It is a big three points today, we go into Crawley looking for another positive result and kick-start our season.”
Former Addick Jayden Stockley headed Fleetwood in front before May drew the Addicks level just before the break after latching on to Chem Campbell’s long ball.
And that is exactly the kind of service the Charlton striker is looking forward to being on the end of as he bids to fire his new side up the League One table.
“Definitely,” said May.
“I want to be facing goal and running towards their goal.
“Defenders don’t like turning and running back to their goal so that is why I just try and play it on the shoulder as much as I can to try and get in.”
May stepped up to take the second-half penalty awarded following a trip on Corey Blackett-Taylor and there were mind games with visiting keeper Stephen McMullen in the build-up to the spot kick.
Not that they put off the Charlton striker in the slightest, the only downside being another caution for his celebrations afterwards.
May revealed: “The Fleetwood keeper was saying a few things.
“He told me that I was going down the middle and I said, ‘Yeah’ before I even went there, and I went down the middle and he dived.
“But I probably shouldn’t have reacted as I did.
“He is a young lad and I think it might have been his debut today.
“But the emotions do get on top of you and when you go 2-1 up and you score, there is no better feeling when you score.
“I probably just let a little bit of steam off but I didn’t know it was a booking.
“Yellow cards are getting thrown around a lot this season.
“We all know the rules so I need to be careful now because I am on four yellow cards.”
