Charlton boss Dean Holden admits that 6-0 humiliation at Portman Road shows how large gulf is to top League One sides

Dean Holden admitted that Charlton’s 6-0 humiliation at Ipswich Town shows the gulf between the promotion-contenders and his mid-table side.

The South Londoners were ripped to shreds by a Tractor Boys outfit who climbed back into the automatic promotion places following the game – whilst Charlton are now mathematically unable to finish in the top six with four games still to play.

Town had the lead inside seven minutes. Conor Chaplin was able to take advantage of hesitancy in the Addicks defence to control and drill beyond Ashley Maynard-Brewer.

They doubled that lead seven minutes later as Chaplin was again left all alone to burst into the Charlton area and lift a tidy finish over the Addicks stopper.

Macauley Bonne came close to reducing the arrears on his return to Portman Road but Town were the dominant side and Chaplin completed his hat-trick 20 minutes from time.

Freddie Ladapo was introduced from the bench inside the final quarter-hour and took advantage of more awful defending to make it 5-0 with a quickfire brace.

The former Palace striker was then tripped by Ryan Inniss when in on goal – the Charlton man shown his fourth red card of the campaign.

Full-back Leif Davis rubbed further salt into the wound with the sixth in added-time as the South Londoners were booed off by those who still remained in the away end at full-time.

Charlton are 30 points behind second-place Town and 15 off the top-six – a reminder of how far the club has fallen below expectations again this season.

“There’s a huge gulf between the teams today,” Holden admitted.

“There’s no doubt about that. Right throughout the team, from back to front, they’ve got really good players. Players that have played in this division and higher and know what it takes to win. It shows how far the gap is from where we want to get to and where we will get to.

“It’s a humbling experience. We didn’t start the game in the correct manner, conceding three corners in the first couple of minutes. 2-0 down after 15 minutes. We had that big chance with Macauley Bonne’s header. If we take that, who knows? From that moment onwards, we struggled to get to grips with them. They overran us in midfield. We were jumping out of our positions and getting played around. We didn’t lay a glove on them. We have to accept that. It’s a really poor afternoon for us.

“Lucky for us, there’s a game in three games time [at Milton Keynes] and we have to respond to that. We have to take it on the chin. We have to own it. We don’t start finger pointing and blaming. We have to look within. I’ll certainly be doing that. I do that after every game, win, lose or draw. And get back to hard work. That’s all that we can do.

“We were getting pulled apart. They’re the best team in the division by a mile. They’ve hit top form today. We’ve underperformed and that can happen.”

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS