Karen Hills believes in her team to bounce back from their 3-2 loss to Crystal Palace on Sunday. Charlton went 1-0 up thanks to Amalie Thestrup, before conceding three goals. A late Emma Bissell penalty gave the Addicks hope in the last 10 minutes, but they did not manage to find the equaliser.
Reflecting on the game, Hills said: "It was obviously a tough game. I said at the start that they are a very good side, and they showed a lot of quality today on the ball, but I thought we matched them in the first half and scored a set piece.
"I think the sucker punch came on the 47th minute when they’ve gone in and scored that goal, so we’ve had to regroup. I think overall second half we came out and tried to carry out the intense press, tried to force them into mistakes, but they’re a good side, and we’ve got to give them credit for being able to play through some of those moments."
This is a second loss in a row for Charlton, but Hills is looking at the bigger picture with only a few games left. She said: "I think we’ve had a tough run over the last couple of weeks, and sometimes in these latter stages of the season, it’s just a moment to reset and look back on all the stuff that’s got us to where we’ve got to and where we are.
"There’s still a lot of football to be played. Two games left, so at the end of the day, we’ve been a good side all season, and we will continue to be a good side. We’re not there by chance; we’re there because we’ve played some really good football and won a lot of games, and that’s what we need to go back to.
"We need to go back to knowing where we’ve been, really, really good and look at some of those moments today. We are disappointed because we’ve conceded three goals from open play, which is unusual for us. Normally, we’re really quite solid, but again, I give a lot of credit to Crystal Palace; they are a fantastic team, and we needed to match them, and we did in moments, but ultimately, we lost the game, and we’ll take that and move on."
Next week, the Addicks will face Liverpool in the FA Cup before the international break, meaning there is a lot of time before the next league match. The time gives Charlton the chance to regroup before they face Portsmouth at the end of April, and in that time, Hills said the whole team will reassess so that they are ready for those last two games.
"When you lose a football match, you’ve always got to look within. I’ll certainly look at my performance. Did we get it right as a staff group? I thought the players executed everything we asked of them today and did their absolute best.
"This league is a tough league, and every game is going to give you different challenges and obviously, from a confidence point of view, if you’ve got a winning mentality, then that’s going to make you breed confidence. But we are going to have to take the hit, and we’re going to learn from that, and what we’re going to do is we’re going to regroup because I’ve got a fantastic group of players in there that are working so hard for each other, and they lift each other.
"There’s going to be a few disappointed heads in there, but ultimately, we’ve got a chance to reset, and we will rest, and we’ll bounce back, and we’ll make sure that we’ll be ready for the FA Cup game and the next game in the league."
