Johnnie Jackson was left disappointed with an uncharacteristic display from his side as Charlton fell to a 1-0 defeat at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.
Kieran Agard fired the hosts ahead in the final seconds of the opening period, steering a rebound beyond Craig MacGillivray with what ultimately proved to be the winner.
“It was a disappointing day,” Jackson told CharltonTV. “I didn’t think we did enough in the game. I don’t think we tested their goalie enough. I think they deserved to win in the end. They had a couple of breakaways that could have put it to bed but we’re still in the game, knocking on the door at the end there. I’m disappointed in the performance, I don’t think that’s a fair reflection of us today.
“I thought there was a period in the middle of the first half where we were on top and I felt like we were in control of the game,” he explained. “We needed to score in that period. Jayden [Stockley] had a header that he perhaps should have scored with. But in that period I thought we could have seized the initiative and we didn’t. We sort of let them off the hook a little bit if you like.
“We got done right on half-time there - a really disappointing goal from our point of view, I thought we could have cleared the ball and dealt with it a lot sooner. We didn’t deal with it properly and obviously going one-down, the complexion of the game has changed.”
Akin Famewo, Conor Washington and Josh Davison were all unavailable for the Addicks having returned positive tests for COVID-19, and while the manager wasn’t willing to use their absence to justify his side’s showing, he admitted the nature of it impacted his pre-match preparations.
“I don’t want to use that as an excuse for being flat,” said Jackson. “We should still be at it, we weren’t quite at our level today. I mean it obviously affected our preparations.
"If we’d have known about it in the early part of the week then we would have prepared with a different team in mind," he added. "But it happened really late in the week and we’ve had to adjust what we’re doing at the last minute really. So, that affects your preparation, what you’re trying to do and obviously in Akin and Conor we’ve got two key parts of the team, two key cogs of the wheel.”