ALAN Pardew vowed to haul his Charlton players in for extra training after defeat by Preston left them clinging to a play-off place.

Saturday's 2-1 loss at The Valley extinguished the Addicks' slim hopes of automatic promotion and left them just one point above Plymouth, who are just outside the play-off places.

Charlton lacked invention, sorely missing the creativity of the transferred Andy Reid and the only chance they fashioned was Patrick McCarthy's scrappy equalising goal.

Speaking after the game, Pardew was blunt in his appraisal of his team's performance, saying it was "a load of crap".

Pardew was so furious with the lamentable display he decided to bring the players in for training on Sunday and cancel their day off.

He said: "We'll be in tomorrow to get that out of our system and make sure in the next game we are a lot better."

The pressure is mounting on Charlton as the pack chasing a play-off place closes in and the manager claimed his side did not cope with the pressure on Saturday.

Pardew also felt the impatience of the fans, who booed the home players' mistakes during the game, added to the nervousness of his team.

"The crowd were not particularly patient and unfortunately a few of our players did not cope with that very well," he added.

New signing Leroy Lita had a frustrating debut, with no decent throughballs for the pacy striker to latch onto.

The whole team lacked cohesion, with possession squandered easily through misplaced passes which were often the result of miscommunication.

This could be down to the number of changes made to the starting 11 throughout the season, but Pardew defended his decisions to tinker with the team.

He said: "The team has not suggested to me that it was ever going to put a run together so I've tried to improve it by bringing players in."

The team will be changed again for Tuesday evening's Burnley game, with Pardew planning to play more experienced players capable of handling the pressure of winning to stay in the play-off places.