Charlton manager Karl Robinson has spoken about Justin Edinburgh’s departure from Northampton - just four league games into the new season.

Edinburgh left the Cobblers bottom of League One following defeats to Shrewsbury, Fleetwood, Charlton and Peterborough.

He became the Football League’s first managerial casualty of the 2017/18 campaign on Thursday and was replaced by former Addicks striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Chinese sports development and education firm Guangzhou-based 5USport purchased a 60 per cent stake in Northampton earlier this summer. And an influx of players has led to heightened expectations.

Robinson, whose Charlton side inflicted a 4-1 thrashing on the Cobblers last month, feels the fixture list wasn’t kind to Edinburgh.

The Liverpudlian told News Shopper: “It’s always difficult when you bring in so many players very quickly. It’s hard to gel.

“They had some very difficult games. Out of the four games they played [under Edinburgh], three had shown good promise to be competitive this year.

“Sometimes the fixture list has to be kind to you as well, and it’s been a little bit kind to us at the beginning of the season.

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“We’re not making a song and dance about it, we feel that we’ve still got a lot more bigger tests to follow.”

Edinburgh joined Northampton in January and helped secure their League One status.

Robinson admits managers do not expect to be at a club for too long given the numerous sackings taking place in football nowadays.

Charlton owner Roland Duchatelet has appointed six different managers, including Jose Riga twice, since arriving at the Valley in 2014.

Robinson added: “Justin’s a really good person, he’s a friend as well. I’ll speak to him just to make sure he’s ok. But it’s part and parcel of what happens. I know it’s happened to a lot of better managers than ourselves.

“So it’s not like it can’t happen to any of us. We go into every job knowing that we’re going to have a short tenure now - especially when I came here!

“I wish Justin luck, he’ll get another job and move on to other things and he’ll be successful again somewhere else.”