Nigel Adkins: Charlton were the side more likely to win but 0-0 draw with Ipswich narrows amount of points we can afford to drop

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Saturday’s goalless draw with Ipswich Town edged Charlton another point closer to League One’s top six – but boss Nigel Adkins warned there won’t be many more occasions where they can drop points if they are to secure a play-off place.

The South Londoners had chances to win the contest during an improved second-half performance after Paul Cook’s Tractor Boys enjoyed the first period.

But Adkins’ men were unable to find a way through on the new Charlton manager’s first home game in charge of the side.

“Cold light of day, you look at it we’ve got another clean sheet, a point on the board,” explained Adkins, whose side are two points behind sixth-placed Portsmouth with a game in hand.

“I can’t control what other teams do. We need a certain amount of points to get into the play-offs This is another point towards that. But as that goes, it now narrows the amount of defeats or points you can drop to achieve that points total. What we’ve got to do now is go and take care of business as best as we can and get ready for a tough game away at Plymouth.

“It was a tough game. They had a bit too too much of the ball at the back, playing out, for my liking – allowing them to get the ball into the attacking third of the pitch and penning us in. We addressed that better in the second half. The lads worked really hard. I don’t really remember Ben [Amos] having too much to do. He made one save in the first half. The introduction of Ben Watson on the hour-mark was pivotal because we actually started to pass the ball far better and trying to get the wide players on the ball in the attacking third of the pitch. We were the team more likely to go and win in the last half hour, we were in control of the game.

“Things you look at is that we’ve kept the clean sheet, we’ve got another point on the board and it’s a first home game for me at The Valley. It gives me an understanding on where we’ve got to try and keep improving moving forward – because it is a big, big pitch.

“We knew it would be energetic. Paul [Cook, Ipswich manager] would have been looking for a reaction and he’s got that first half. We didn’t press sufficiently well enough to stop the ball getting launched forward and we had to defend that. We addressed that and we were far better as the game went on, so well done to the players for taking that on board. We’re a massive threat on set-pieces and we’ve got talented players we’re trying to get on the ball. That last half-hour we were the more likely team to go and win it, we were in control. Sometimes you just need that bit of magic to go and get that 1-0 victory and then you can build on that.”

PHOTOS: PAUL EDWARDS