Michael Appleton was pleased with his side’s performance on Tuesday evening as they made it two wins from two home games under the new boss.
“I’m delighted with how they responded to going a goal down,” he told CharltonTV. “The sending off probably helped us a bit, but I thought the momentum was swinging our way anyway once we got the second.”
“We got it right tonight,” he continued. “The players looked like they were enjoying themselves. Even at 11 v 11, when we went 2-1 ahead, they were playing with a bit of freedom. And when they do that, because of the type of group that they are they can be very dangerous.”
In particular, the boss was impressed with the desire his players showed. “The most pleasing thing is that we had so many players who were prepared to run without the ball tonight,” he said. “And when I watch certain players in this group, that hasn’t always been the case. So that was really pleasing. Because ultimately, if you’re going to score goals, you’ve got to be prepared to run.
“We ran hard tonight. We didn’t do that in the first half against Shrewsbury. We did it much better in the second half, and [tonight] we replicated it for 90 minutes.”
Given the Addicks’ dominance come the final whistle, it was easy to forget that they went behind in the game. But Appleton was not concerned with his players’ first half in the same way that he was on Saturday.
“I actually think we played quite well first half. I thought we dominated the ball,” he explained. “Clearly we got caught from a structural point of view, one or two times. Obviously the goal was one of them”
The comfortable win might also have let Alfie May off the hook in the eyes of his Head Coach, who said that the number nine’s decision to let Chuks Aneke take the penalty was not planned: “I’m not sure what my attitude would have been like if we didn’t score that!” laughed Appleton.
“But at the end of the day you’ve got to put trust in players, and I do trust this group. I’ve only been with them a short period of time, but there’s been moments in every single match where their character has been tested.”
