Dean Holden: Win at Milton Keynes is ‘perfect response’ after weekend drubbing at Ipswich

Dean Holden reckons the 1-0 win at Milton Keynes is the “perfect response” to Charlton’s 6-0 humbling at Ipswich Town over the weekend.

Jack Payne’s strike on the hour-mark proved the difference between the two sides. The Addicks had chances to put the game to bed during a second-half mainly spent in the ascendancy.

They did endure a nervy seven minutes of added-time as the relegation threatened hosts looked for a leveller – but the South Londoners held on for a first away clean sheet since February.

Holden admitted: “It was back to the walls stuff at the end naturally. I said to the players that I’d rather win it 1-0 than 5 or 6-0. That might make me a but boring and the supporters might want more goals but it goes to show that it’s a really dogged 1-0 display with a lot of personality.

“It was a perfect response. The supporters were turning up here wondering what they were going to see. It’s vindication for the way we’ve handled that 6-0 defeat at the weekend. There’s different ways you can go after that. There’s a lot of emotion around the result.

“We addressed it as we always do with the players but with a calm manner. We saw the confidence had not dropped in the players. That first-half showed that, we got on the ball and moved it well.

“We started sloppy in the second-half but we then got hold of the game and scored a fantastic goal.  Fantastic finish and the approach play again.

“Lots of good stuff. Even if we had drawn that game late on or even lost it, I still saw a committed display, I still saw players running. That was the most important thing tonight because we needed to put some pride back in it. If you go and get beat heavy again tonight, that could really start to fester. We can’t forget what happened on Saturday and we won’t do but we have put it to bed really quickly which pleases me.”

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS