CHRIS Powell concedes time is against his Charlton side if they are to win promotion this season.

The new manager made the perfect start by winning his first four games before a dramatic change in fortunes has seen him lose the next four.

Despite this, Powell feels his side have been genuinely unlucky, although he admits there were no excuses for Tuesday’s 3-1 reverse at the hands of Carlisle.

“I think it shows where we are at,” he said of Charlton’s current run of bad form.

“We’ve been in most games.

“Some of the games we’ve won like Peterborough – we could have lost that game.

“Then you look at Notts County and we should have got something from that.

“Exeter was turned on a couple of mistakes after us hitting the bar.

“The Carlisle game was one we really weren’t in after 20 minutes.

“We had a good start, which is what we needed and I wanted, but we didn’t sustain it.

“But we do still create chances in our games, so we are at the stage where if we had won and lost in the eight game sequence it wouldn’t look so bad.

“Because we’ve had the four wins at the start and now four losses, it does put a bit of a change on it.

“We are mindful of what has happened and I’m still focused on what we are trying to achieve and we are desperate and willing to change it and turn things around.

“I know the players are. We want to do it because when I first came in there were 23 games and we are now down to 15.

“You think there are plenty of games, and they do come thick and fast, but that is the thing because all of a sudden you are down to 10, so we need to address the situation and bounce back and use those games to get those points that we crave.”

When asked how many games Charlton would need to secure maximum points from this season to seal promotion, the boss replied: “I want to win all of them because I think that is the only way you should look at them.

“But again I’m realistic to know that is some going to do that, especially where we are at now.

“I think if you pin yourself down just to getting half of the games we have left then you will be doing yourself a disservice.

“We’ve got to try to look and win them all and look to just try and push ourselves up and win as many games as we can.

“We are hurting and everyone is, the players and the supporters, because you really want to be up in the pack. When you see yourself in the top six, that does just help you.

“Confidence is a little bit low but not as much as people think. We still think we’ve been in the games and we now have another chance against Tranmere.”

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