Nathan Jones admitted his disappointment after Charlton’s Carabao Cup exit at Cambridge United on Tuesday evening.
The Addicks boss made 11 changes from the side that faced Leicester City at the weekend, handing opportunities to several academy graduates, but saw his team fall to a 3-1 defeat at the Abbey Stadium.
“It’s a mixture of embarrassment and real disappointment,” Jones reflected post-match. “We know we were stretched defensively tonight with the changes we made, but I still expected us to do the basics well: to compete, to outwork the opposition. That’s part of our culture here and we didn’t do it. We got schooled.”
Charlton conceded twice in the opening half-hour before Ibrahim Fullah’s fine strike brought them back into the contest before the interval. The hosts sealed victory with a third goal in the second half, leaving Jones frustrated by the manner of the goals conceded.
“We gave away poor goals,” he said. “The press wasn’t right, we allowed runners off the back, and our marking in the box wasn’t good enough. Those are things we usually pride ourselves on, and tonight we didn’t do them. In the Championship we’ve gone three games without conceding a chance and here we conceded three in one night. That shows where we’re at in terms of depth, and it’s something we have to address.”
Despite the result, the manager was encouraged by some of the individual contributions from his younger players.
“Ibrahim’s goal was excellent, and there were bright sparks when lads like Henry Rylah and Keenan Gough came on,” Jones explained. “We finished the game with almost a full academy side apart from Tanto [Olaofe]. For Ollie Hobden and Keenan it was a proud moment making their debuts. But at the end of the day, playing in the first team is about winning games, and tonight we didn’t deserve anything.”
Charlton now turn their attention back to Sky Bet Championship action with a trip to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, and Jones was clear on what he expects to see from his side.
“The Championship is a totally different level and we’ll make changes back again,” he said. “But we’ll need to be considerably better than we were tonight, in fact, I expect us to be. I can’t remember the last time one of my teams was outrun and outbattled like that. It’s a learning curve for the younger lads, and also for the senior ones who were out there. We’ve got to learn quickly.”
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