A frustrated Nathan Jones bemoaned missed chances but was pleased with his side’s level of performance in a 1-0 loss to Wrexham at The Valley on Saturday.
The Addicks dominated for large parts of the game and had plenty of chances but fell to defeat through Ollie Rathbone’s well-taken 30th-minute goal.
Jones said: “I’m really disappointed because, if I knew we were going to get that level of performance, I would have taken it before kick-off. The performance, I thought, was excellent, we moved the ball well, we created enough chances, it’s just we weren’t clinical.
“They were clinical with their one bit of quality and we weren’t. We should have been two or three up at half-time and then we continued to create chances, that’s the difference.
“The chances fell to people who you’d want it to fall to. You want Sonny Carey on the edge of the box, the keeper makes a wonderful save. You want Luke Berry in the middle of the goal where he can pick his spot because he’s the best we’ve got at it. Harry Clarke has a gilt-edged glorious chance. Miles [Leaburn] across the near post where he gets too much on it. We had Collins [Sichenje] who had a chance and I could go on. They are standout ones and that is not the ones where we pen them in and don’t quite get outcomes. I thought we were really dominant today. We’ve let ourselves down with our finishing today. The level of performance, I couldn’t have asked for too much more apart from a goal.”
The Addicks were without Thomas Kaminski, who picked up a hamstring injury, while Reece Burke limped off in the 13th minute and Jones confirmed that Luke Berry was substituted at half-time with a thigh injury.
The nature of the display meant Jones and his team were clapped off at full-time by The Valley faithful and the Charlton Manager praised the “magnificent” support.
He added: "I think we had real good structure, we got wide, we got balls in the box. They had to defend really well and we created enough chances to put the game to bed. I want to praise them [Wrexham] because they’ve won a game and they’ve shown once again why they are where they are but we’ve let them off the hook today because we’ve had chances.
“We’ve created enough chances to win the game, the performance level was there, I can’t hammer them today. If we’d have been clinical, we’d have won the game.”
The Addicks are back in action at The Valley next Saturday when Birmingham City are the visitors. Click here to purchase your tickets now!
