Charlton Athletic skipper Greg Docherty: We lacked killer instinct in defeat at Birmingham City
Charlton captain Greg Docherty is eager to quickly put Saturday’s defeat at table-topping Birmingham City behind him.
The Addicks were beaten for the first time in seven as Jay Stansfield’s first half strike was enough to decide the game.
The South Londoners enjoyed more of the ball after the interval but struggled to conjure up a moment of quality to take something from the encounter.
Charlton dropped to seventh in the League One table following the loss in the Second City.
Skipper Docherty said: “It was tight. A narrow defeat. Never nice losing a game. We had opportunities, just didn’t have that killer edge today and that’s the disappointing thing. We give ourselves opportunities to create but we don’t have that killer instinct today and that final bit. Birmingham had everyone behind the ball the last 10-15 minutes, they brought on two centre-backs, they were defending for their lives. We allowed them to see out the game, too many silly fouls and we’ve been really good at that.
“That’s just the learning curve for a lot of people as well and for us as a team. We’ve come here to a team that has a lot of expectancy, and they should go on and win this league. We can take credit for it, but we always want more. The perspective is we’ve been on a really good run and we’ve put ourselves in a really good position going into the last 15 games of the season.
“We could have had the ball down a bit more and been a bit more patient. Something we’re good at as a team is bouncing back. I think this defeat is different to when we lost at Rotherham, today there was loads of positives to take. Of course you can learn from moments, but we came up against a good side today and showed we’re a good side. We were backed by a brilliant away end and they’re really behind us now going into the last 15 games of the season.
“We’ve got a week now to build up to Exeter and Barnsley to follow, so we’re in a good place. We’ve got ourselves in a brilliant position from the Christmas period onwards. We’re going to have bumps on the road, it’s not always going to be easy, but 15 games to go, we’re looking forward.
“There’s going to be so many twists and turns. It’s such a tight league, you look at the table today, how much it swings. You’re one win and one defeat from another team. We have put ourselves in a fantastic position going forward. Today’s disappointing, we never got any points on the board, but we’re now fully focused on getting points back on the board and in the right direction.”
PHOTO: KYLE ANDREWS