Karl Robinson admitted that his side were second best after suffering a first home defeat of the season at the hands of Wigan Athletic on Tuesday evening.
The Addicks’ four-game winning streak came to a halt against Paul Cook’s men who came away from The Valley with a 3-0 victory, and Robinson conceded that it was a case of losing individual battles throughout.
“I lost my battle with their manager and every one of my players lost their battles with their players and it was as simple as that tonight,” he said.
“We tried to play a little bit of a different way second half and play direct to Josh, but we didn’t win enough second balls. We lost all of our individual battles.
“We have to apologise because it wasn’t good enough. We’ve had a bad night against one of the best attacking teams in the league. Sometimes you have a bad night against other teams but you find a way of winning. That’s as good as you’ll come up against in League One.
“We gave them too much space and showed them too much respect and we’ve been beaten by the better team.”
Robinson added: “The fans stuck with us right until the end and even clapped the players off at the end of the game, so I have to apologise to them because I feel like it’s my fault.”
Supporters can see Robinson’s post-match press conference in full on Valley Pass shortly.