Charlton skipper Jason Pearce apologises to fans who travelled to watch poor performance at Middlesbrough

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Charlton skipper Jason Pearce apologised to the travelling supporters who witnessed a well below-par display during the 1-0 loss at Middlesbrough.

George Saville scored the only goal of the game inside the opening minute in the northeast, with the South Londoners never really recovering and falling to their third defeat on the spin.

“On behalf of the players, I thank the fans that travelled up here and apologise for the performance,” said Pearce, as Charlton’s winless run extended to eight Championship games.

“It obviously wasn’t good enough and they’ve travelled a long away to watch us and support us. We’ll do our best as a team and as a squad to try and put that right on Tuesday [at home to Huddersfield]. We’ll keep fighting, fighting for the shirt and doing our best.

“It was a horrendous start,” added the defender, who turned 32-years-old last Friday.

“You want to come away from home and stay solid for 15-20 minutes but we conceded after less than a minute. A terrible start and then we just didn’t get going. We weren’t good enough. When we’re playing against any team in this league, you have to win the battle first. I’ve said it before. And we didn’t win the battle. They seemed to want it more than us. We’re massively disappointed.

“It’s not a great start but we still didn’t win the battle. First and foremost, you have to win the battle to win any game. We didn’t. So, we’re not going to get anything out of the game.

“It was an off-day. Normally we have a group that gives their all. I don’t think we didn’t give our all, it just wasn’t quite our day. We didn’t win the battle. I don’t really know what to say because it just wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to do better. The quicker we realise we’re in a battle now, the better because we’ve got to improve and improve quickly.

“Whenever you have a bad performance or a bad result, it’s always good to have a game straight away. That’s a positive.

The Addicks are in the midst of an injury crisis but they were boosted by the return to fitness of Lyle Taylor. The striker came off the bench at half-time at the Riverside, his first appearance since being side-lined in early September.

“It’s very disappointing when you get so many injuries. I’ve never seen it like it has been this season before in my career. To get someone like Lyle back in the squad and see him come on today, it’s only going to boost us.

“We’ve got to hold our hands up – it wasn’t good enough. We’ll try and put that right on Tuesday and hopefully we can get a few more lads back.”

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS