Charlton captain Greg Docherty says he understands the fans’ frustrations after defeat at Exeter made it just two league wins in 11 outings.
The South Londoners have dropped into the bottom half of the table following the 1-0 reverse at St James Park and some of the travelling support made their upset clear at full-time.
Docherty, signed from Hull City in the summer and awarded the captaincy by Nathan Jones, said: “It’s understandable. It’s a big football club. It has high expectations, we all know that. We all came, most of the squad has been brought in by the manager and we all bought in to what he wanted. We were very much aware of where this club can go and where it should be but it’s all well and good saying that, it needs to happen on the pitch.
“We’re the ones working to do that. It’s a long old season. They’ve travelled far. I understand the frustration. Trust me, the players are just as frustrated. We want good away days. The home form in the main has been good but we need more wins ultimately. We need more wins. We’ve got a good structure most of the time. We usually keep going and we’d usually put one of those chances away but today we haven’t, and we’ve been undone.
“We’ve all been around football and in this league. It’s a young squad but experienced as well. We know what it takes. We need to find that edge. It’s all well and good talking about it. It needs to happen. Today was a defeat but there’s been a lot of draws and we need to turn these games into wins. There’re times we’re dominating large spells of the game, and we need to strike when we are dominating.
The Addicks were under a lot of pressure in the first-half in Devon but held out before conceding during their own period in the ascendancy after the interval.
Docherty added: “Really positive start [to the game at Exeter]. Created a great chance, penned them in. But unfortunately, from that, the goalie makes a good save, we never capitalised on that. They had a ridiculous amount of corners in the first-half. Fair play, we defended them but ironically second-half were undone by a corner which is something we were being praised for at half-time.
“It’s all well and good doing it for 45 minutes, we need to see the game out. That’s the frustrating thing. If we don’t score it should be 0-0 minimum. And we’d be going away frustrated with a 0-0, never mind a 1-0 defeat.”
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