Olly Groome reports
Karl Robinson was left angered by the decision to disallow a perfectly good Charlton goal following the 0-0 draw with Millwall at The Valley on Saturday.
Before the start of his post-match press conference, the Addicks boss showed footage of the incident to the assembled members of the media, which showed Lions goalkeeper Jordan Archer completely miss his kick, unimpeded, before Patrick Bauer hooked the ball into the open goal in the 58th minute of the match.
It was just one controversial decision by referee Keith Stroud which left Robinson frustrated, while he also discussed his pride at the effort shown by his team, who lost Josh Magennis and Lewis Page through injury early on.
Question: Karl, what are your thoughts on that derby draw?
Karl Robinson: “I thought we were the better team. We dominated possession of the ball, obviously on counter-attack, they look dangerous with a very good partnership up front.
“I heard their fans singing that we’re never going to beat them – we won’t without help – and they had a lot of help today.
“I can’t say who from, because I will get fined, but by my comment you will know who I mean. Disgusting in some ways. Horrendous – one of the worst I’ve seen for a long time.
“The goal should have stood. Nobody is near the goalkeeper, he completely just has a mental block for a second and the referee is only 10 yards away. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.
“What more could my players have done today? They ran more, they tackled more, they fought more, they showed that the badge meant something to them and that’s the bit I find difficult to accept.”
Q: The day didn’t start particularly well losing Josh Magennis and Lewis Page to injury so early on. That must have added to your frustration?
KR: “No. It adds to my desire to win. Although you can have negative moments in games, I didn’t see it as that. I saw it as a window of opportunity for Jay Dasilva and Tony Watt to get some minutes.
“It’s hard because I think that if we had those players we would have won the game, because what I would have been able to do is use three fresh substitutions with 20 minutes to go, but I couldn’t, I only had one.
“That one I got on was Ricky Holmes and we knew he only had 10 minutes. My plan with what I wanted to do went with those injuries, but it’s about you react in life. It’s about how you respond to negativity and adversity and my players responded wonderfully well.
“I can’t ask any more. I’m starting to fall in love with this place and I want to bring the good times back here together. What we’ve seen today is players who have come back from being unfit, players who have been injured and gone off, players playing in their first game – so many different factors that weren’t quite right – but we certainly showed a unified performance.
“When I say unified, I mean the fans as well. There was a connection today and an electricity about the place and that wasn’t because Millwall were here, it’s because Charlton are here. That’s the most important thing.”
Q: You had a player sent off right at the end. What happened there?
KR: “Something got said to him and that’s not for me to say. It’s a difficult one for me to remark on, because he can’t react like that as a role model and a footballer, so he will be internally fined.
“But he’s so desperate for us to win and his passion overcame that, unfortunately.”