Charlton Athletic centre-half Alex Mitchell: ‘Lazy’ defending is costing us goals

Charlton centre-half Alex Mitchell reckons “lazy defending” is costing the side goals at the moment.

Speaking after the 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield Town on Saturday, Mitchell also described the red card shown to captain Greg Docherty shortly after the Addicks had scored a first-half equaliser as a “sucker punch.”

The South Londoners have now gone five games without a clean sheet in League One and are winless in that time as well.

Mitchell said: “It’s a frustrating one. We started really well but they got a bit of momentum after 15 or 20 minutes. The red card was a bit of a sucker punch for us. It’s a game of opinions. I don’t want to talk too much about it but it’s a weird one in my opinion.

“Second-half, we had enough chances to win the game but at the moment we’re getting sucker punched by lazy defending at goals. It’s not just the defenders, it’s the midfielders, attackers like with set-pieces. I pride myself with keeping clean sheets, defending. We’re paid to keep clean sheets so at the moment we’re not doing our job.

“It is and it isn’t [poor timing for the red card]. This team has a lot of character and heart. At the moment it’s taking us a goal to properly get our foot on the gas. We’ve got to change that. There’s a stat where if we score the first goal, we don’t really lose. We’ve got to keep going and it’ll come. Just stay patient.

“I know it’s frustrating for the fans. The away support, it’s crazy how good it is. I’d be hugely frustrated if we keep performing like that for them and they’ve got a five-hour journey now. I can only apologise for them, but apologies aren’t really good enough – it’s about getting performances on the pitch and getting the points.”

PHOTO: KYLE ANDREWS