That ‘shows the mark of the man’ – Dean Holden on defender’s apology after Charlton fall to defeat at Plymouth

Charlton boss Dean Holden revealed that defender Lucas Ness apologised to his teammates after his mistake led to the opening goal during today’s 2-0 defeat at Plymouth Argyle.

The centre-half received the ball directly from the Addicks’ kick-off at the start of the second half, but his clearance was closed down by Ryan Hardie who broke through to score within 10 seconds of the restart.

The Addicks were unable to play their way back into the contest despite improving following the introduction of Miles Leaburn, Corey Blackett-Taylor and Daniel Kanu from the bench. They didn’t force a single shot on target and were picked off as Niall Ennis finished off a counter four minutes from time.

The South Londoners have now gone over seven hours without scoring and are winless in four outings – with just one maximum in their last six.

“[Ness] just apologised in the dressing room the group which is a mark of the man,” explained Holden.

“He’s been the outstanding player since I’ve come to the club, on and off the pitch. I’ve been really pleased with what he’s done. He’s got nothing to apologise for, it was a clearance that was blocked. Within 10 seconds of the second half starting, they’re 1-0 up.

“They’re second in the league, flying high at the moment. That was going to be difficult from there on in. Lucas personally responded really well. I didn’t see any drop off in his performance which I was really pleased with because as a young player that’s never easy. Fair play to him for that. He’s got to rectify and learn from that which he will.

“We threw the three subs on, I thought we gave them problems. I think around the 60-minute mark until round 75 we had really good pressure, a lot of moments around their box. Crosses into the box that we couldn’t get on the end of something. They scored the second on 87 minutes. We had a set-piece that we didn’t get right attacking, they had a counter, and we didn’t get the press right at that point. The ball is in the back of the net, 2-0.

“The bigger picture is since beating Forest Green, we’ve had a fortnight where we’ve played three teams in the top four or whatever it is. Lost by the odd goal other than today. The bigger picture is that we got the five wins early when we first came in which was really important.

“Now we’re taking a little bit of pain in terms of results these last three or four games. Our fans are intelligent, they know where we’re at as a club and where we want to get to. It’s frustrating, it’s not great being a Charlton fan at the moment. The biggest thing in all things like this is to stick together. Keep believing in what you’re doing, and I know things will change. We’ve got a run of games now that is completely different in terms of teams in the division. Our fans will back us again and we’ll look to put it right.”

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS