Nathan Jones after Charlton Athletic’s heavy defeat at Rotherham United: ‘We weren’t us today – the goals were catastrophic’
Nathan Jones admitted he didn’t see his side’s chaotic defensive performance in the 4-2 defeat at Rotherham United coming.
The defeat – their first in seven League One outings – was a world away from the display during Tuesday’s narrow FA Cup loss at Championship Preston North End.
The South Londoners were two down inside 14 minutes. Andre Green – who had a spell on loan at The Valley five seasons ago – broke the deadlock with a scrappy finish from close-range. An error from Lloyd Jones then allowed Green to feed Alex MacDonald who doubled the lead from inside the area.
The deficit was halved by Miles Leaburn shortly before the break as he swept home from Greg Docherty’s centre – but Rotherham did take a two-goal advantage into the interval with Zak Jules adding the Millers’ third in added-time.
It was four soon after the break as Malik Wilks ran clear to lift the ball over the onrushing Ashley Maynard-Brewer. Matty Godden pulled one back in added-time at the end of the game but it was too little, too late.
It was the first time the Addicks had conceded four in a league game since the 6-0 demolition job at Ipswich Town in April 2023 under Dean Holden.
Jones said: “We were really poor. I didn’t think we did any of the basics right, that you have to win a game. You know when you come here what type of game you’re going to have. They were more aggressive than us, they ran harder than us, they won headers, they won second balls, they held the ball up and we didn’t do any of that.
“The goals are catastrophic, the goals are big, big errors in terms of a lot of things. Didn’t do the basics well, but they’ve had other chances as well. We didn’t defend our box anywhere near.
“They put one ball in, we’re the wrong side, which we were all afternoon, and they end up scoring from not a clean strike. Then a big error from Lloyd. Lloyd’s been excellent for me, he really has, but a big error. And then we get back in the game, right in the stroke of half-time, so you think, right, okay, it could change something.
“And then we immediately go back to today’s default and give the ball away, give a foul away, don’t defend the box, and then they score. At no point do we put them under the pressure that we normally put under teams, and that’s the disappointing thing, because we weren’t us today.
“I wouldn’t have seen it coming anyway. When we’ve won games, when we’ve lost games, we’ve been by the odd goal, and we’ve been really aggressive or front-footed, and something’s happened, we haven’t taken chances, or someone’s scored from a distance. But today, they could have scored more, and that’s the frustrating thing. From a real good defensive platform, and from a real good momentum and form that we’ve been in. We’ve gone to a Championship side and hardly conceded a chance. We’ve come today and conceded a seven or eight.
“What we can’t do is let that creep in, because we haven’t been like that. We’ve probably, since I’ve been here, we’ve had two performances like that where we haven’t defended well, Bristol Rovers and this. So, we have to make sure we do go back to default now.”
PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS