CHARLTON’S football for a fiver initiative was a rousing success on Saturday, drawing a crowd of 24,767 fans to The Valley.

Unfortunately for the home fans who took advantage of the incentive, Exeter City played spoilers with a 3-1 win following a late series of individual errors.

Despite the result, the Addicks board will hope some of those who attended to give SE7 its biggest crowd in years caught the bug and will return for future home games this season, despite the Grecians result.

Manager Chris Powell was upbeat about the initiative after the final whistle, despite the disappointing turn of events on the pitch.

He said: “I think the owners have always known that they can draw a crowd.

“When the club was in the Premier League, we were having regular crowds like that so they know the potential is there and the fanbase is there but it’s about us being successful to try and bring them back.

“Obviously many people took advantage of the offer, which we thank them for because they were with us all game.

“It would be nice to get them back regularly and it would have been great to have crowned it off with a home win but it wasn’t to be.

“We just have to regroup and make sure that we’re ready again for our next game which is away but is followed up by two home games.

“There’s still a long way to go yet.”

Powell went on to urge the Charlton fans to remember the positives of their day out, in particular the work ethic of the side and the number of chances they created.

He explained: “You want today’s crowd to come back and support this club, we’ve been through a lot in the last few years.

“Any fan who came in today would have seen a team trying to go forward and take their chances.

“We didn’t take them, but we did hit the bar twice.

“You can’t legislate for individual mistakes at times and looking at our results this one doesn’t look the greatest.

“But anyone who was here would have seen a team making more chances than the away team and that’s what you want from the home team.

“You want them to be on the front foot and creating chances and that’s what we’ve done but ultimately we didn’t take them.”

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