Dean Holden was pleased with his side’s willingness to fight for the badge as the Addicks ran out 1-0 winners against Leyton Orient in the first game of the new season.
“I thought we started the game excellently, exactly how we wanted to with that intent,” he said. “They’re a team who want to play a nice style of football on their own terms, and they’ve obviously had a lot success winning the title last season so it was important we got after them, particularly with a big crowd behind us.
“We forced them into mistakes and they weren’t able to play out from the back as much as they would normally like.”
With the Valley rocking, Holden stressed the importance of reflecting the supporters’ desire on the pitch. “I think when you bring as big a crowd as we did today - the first time for quite a long time - it’s important that they see a team that are prepared to go out and represent them on the pitch,” he said.
“Run all over the opposition. Fight, tackle and all of the things that we saw. It’s important because hopefully now they’ll see a team that they can relate to and they’ll want to come back the next game,” said the boss. “It was the best atmosphere I’ve experienced at The Valley without a shadow of a doubt.”
The Addicks started the game with six academy graduates in their first XI, and the Manager was satisfied with what he saw. “Karoy [Anderson] early in the game was a bit clunky on the ball at times,” he said. “But he grew into the game and there was that big tackle on the far side. I think that’s what the fans here want to see. They want to see them go out and do everything for the shirt.
“And Tyreece [Campbell] is a wonderful young player. He finds great pockets of space where he can turn and dribble and drive and get beyond the opposition.”
The gaffer is now looking forward to Tuesday when his side will travel to south Wales for the first round of the Carabao Cup. “We’ve got a big game at Newport now,” he said. “We’re not going to take this lightly. It’s a game we want to win. We want to get a winning mentality back at this football club.”
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