Charlton Athletic boss delivers 'brutal' verdict ahead of Portsmouth clash
Portsmouth will travel to Championship rivals Charlton Athletic next Saturday afternoon.
Charlton Athletic and Portsmouth will both look to bounce back from chastening results and performances when they meet at The Valley next weekend.
Pompey produced an underwhelming display at Fratton Park on Saturday and they were duly punished as a first-half goal from the in-form Anis Mehmeti was enough to help Bristol City collect all three points. More worryingly, the loss, coupled with Oxford United’s Friday night win against Ipswich Town, means John Mousinho’s men have slipped into the Championship relegation zone.
Their next opponents also have increasing relegation concerns after they fell to a 3-1 defeat at current league leaders and title favourites Coventry City. The Addicks actually took the lead just before the quarter-hour mark as Harvey Knibbs found the net - but they emerged empty-handed thanks to a Josh Eccles equaliser and a goal in each half from Ellis Simms.
That meant Nathan Jones’ men have lost their last four league games as they now focus on next Saturday’s home game with Portsmouth and they are sitting just six points clear of the relegation zone. The Addicks boss admitted his side had suffered a ‘brutal week’ after their defeat against the Sky Blues was preceded by losses against Southampton and Stoke City - but insisted there were positives to take into their preparations for their meeting with Pompey.
Disappointed
He said: “I’m really disappointed with the manner of the goals. Level of performance, I’m relatively happy because there was so many positives from it. First half we had the majority of the better chances, we had three or four chances, one header off the line, Sonny Carey has a real good opportunity. I think with better decision making we would have gone in further ahead. It’s been a brutal week, a real tough week, Southampton, Stoke and then the leaders, especially when we’re as stretched as we are, but I’m proud of the application, I’m proud of what they’ve done.”
“We had chances, on the counter attack we’ve had four real glorious chances. The disappointing thing for me is the goals because we know how they score, we’ve done work to combat that then the set play goal is a real difficult one for us to take because that should have been avoided. These are a side that’s flying at the minute, we are a side that’s patching up things.”