‘I’ll take full responsibility – tactically I got it wrong’ – Charlton boss Jones takes blame for poor performance at Bristol Rovers

Nathan Jones was prepared to take the blame for Charlton’s 3-2 defeat at Bristol Rovers tonight – a third straight League One reverse for the South Londoners that has dropped them into mid-table.

The hosts had lost four successive league matches but went into a 3-0 lead after 67 minutes.

Alex Mitchell clawed one back for the Addicks – his first goal since signing from Millwall in the summer – in the 79th minute.

And Charlton added another midway through eight minutes of second-half stoppage time with two substitutes combining, Matty Godden converting from Chuks Aneke’s cross.

But that late reduction in the losing margin could not gloss over a hugely disappointing performance by the South Londoners, who produced a terrible opening 45 minutes in which they failed to muster a shot on target.

Defensively they were slow to close down their former loan player Scott Sinclair, who curled past Will Mannion from the edge of the penalty box on the half-hour mark.

And the lesson was not learned when Jamie Lindsay produced a similar kind of finish in the 57th minute.

It was to get even worse when James Wilson headed in from close range as the defensive stability that had been a key part of Charlton’s strong start in the opening weeks of the campaign was badly AWOL.

Addicks manager Jones, speaking to the club’s in-house media, mentioned on multiple occasions in his post-match interview that he carried the can for the defeat.

“I’ll take full responsibility for this result,” he said. “I got the team wrong – tactically I didn’t get it right today.”

“I picked the team that didn’t perform. That’s what I said to the fans (at the end of the match) – we’ve let them down. I’ve let them down tonight. I haven’t done that before. It was a poor performance – we didn’t win our battles and they were more aggressive than us.

“In big parts of games we’ve been fine but then there are other games now where teams are getting near our box and scoring. Everyone scores from outside the box. We’re not learning.

“We won’t get team selection wrong again. We got over-run all over. I tried to do something tonight that didn’t work and we were ineffective. Our front two were ineffective…our wide ones were ineffective..our midfield was ineffective. Basically we were ineffective all over.”

Lloyd Jones headed a big chance over at the end of the first period and also hit the right upright with another attempt after the restart.

Charlton’s first shot on target took until the 55th minute, Conor Coventry’s strike tipped over by the Rovers keeper.

There was a boost for the visitors with Miles Leaburn back in the matchday squad and he came on in the second half, his first senior appearance since hamstring surgery last season.

“There were lots of positives late on,” said Charlton boss Jones. “We created enough chances to actually have got something from the game – we shouldn’t have got something from the game because we were 3-0 down. But we’ve had chances. We had a glorious chance in the first half and then chances and situations second half.

“When I came in we were 19 without a win so we built that solidity and always could win a game or be in a game because we kept clean sheets or didn’t concede many. Now it’s crazy. We have conceded six in the last three games – that we hadn’t done pretty much all through pre-season and the first four, five or six games. We’ve gone away from that.

“At the moment we’re in a tough moment. We have got to get back to making sure we do the basics better – normally we defend our box fantastically well.

“Teams aren’t carving us open and creating glorious opportunities. What’s happening is that they come to the edge of our box and score. It’s quite phenomenal. You look at Birmingham (the EFL Cup tie ) and two tonight. People have to score a very, very good goal against us.

“But we asked certain things about putting the ball in the box with quality and we didn’t do that with enough consistency. It stems from that we didn’t have a real foothold in the game right from the off. That was down to me.

“Chuks and Miles looked a handful. Godden was sharp. So we have got the players there. We are eight games in – it will be fine. We have just gone away from it a little bit and that’s the frustrating thing.”

PICTURES: KYLE ANDREWS