‘We didn’t do the basics well enough’ – Charlton boss Nathan Jones on 2-0 defeat at Reading

Nathan Jones admitted his Charlton Athletic side paid the price for not doing the “basics well” at all times in today’s 2-0 defeat at Reading.

The Addicks are only out of the League One relegation zone on goal difference after their winless run stretched to 13 matches.

Charlton have taken three points from a possible 33.

Femi Azeez scored twice for the Royals in the second half – both fine finishes but on each occasion the South Londoners failed to deal with a long throw from Amadou Mbengue.

“Look, I learned a lot,” said Jones, after his first match at the helm following his appointment on Sunday. “We didn’t do the basics well enough on a few occasions. They gave me everything.

“We’ll take something from it and make sure we improve for Tuesday.

“It (the game) is the only way you learn. It’s a controlled environment on the training ground – they train with each other and aren’t out of their comfort zone – this is when you bring them out of their comfort zone. You learn quite a lot and we have today.

“It’s good to have Panutche (Camara) back and DK (Daniel Kanu) did well when he came on, in terms of that he looked a threat. We have to be better in terms of what we do. I’ve learned a lot about people who I can play and how I can play with those people – we go from there.”

Charlton have gone 19 games without a clean sheet.

Jones said: “If you do the basics well then you can win football games. We’re not doing the basics well enough, so that has to improve. We were undone today by two long throws. Reading scored in midweek from a long throw – so it’s not something that wasn’t put there.

“It is a learning curve for us but we have to learn quickly because we can’t keep not winning a game, that’s the frustrating thing. We have to learn quickly about them and then make judgements from there.”

The Addicks have 15 games left to pull clear of trouble and are back in action on Tuesday at home to Lincoln City.

They had nearly 3,000 supporters at the Select Car Leasing Stadium but there was little for them to cheer in a match in which Charlton posted an xG (expected goals) of 0.27.

“The fans were excellent, they were outstanding,” said Jones. “We are disappointed we couldn’t give them something to get behind but everything won’t change in one week, four training sessions and one game.

“We have to build and we have to build quickly.”

Jones made a change at the break with January signing Macaulay Gillesphey replaced by Rarmani Edmonds-Green.

Asked if the former Plymouth centre-back was having his minutes managed due to his previous hamstring niggle, Jones said: “Well look, he isn’t used to playing games so we started him, because of certain things, but we wanted to use the tactical change in the end. We have got to make sure he doesn’t get pushed beyond his limits in certain stuff. It was a tactical change, we felt it would give us something different.

“Terell (Thomas) is probably slightly more athletic, so we can bump people. It’s about me finding out what I can ask from people. Yeah, they can do it in training but in games that is when we learn.”

PICTURE: KYLE ANDREWS