Charlton head coach Guy Luzon revealed he could not risk losing any more players to injury after his side’s Capital One Cup exit to local rivals Crystal Palace.

Dwight Gayle’s second-half hat-trick ensured that the bragging rights remained firmly with the Premier League outfit.

Before the game, the Israeli put out a weakened Charlton XI as notable stalwarts Ahmed Kashi, Patrick Bauer, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Tony Watt were left on the bench.

Luzon said: “Of course, I always want to play with my strongest team but thinking of Cardiff on Saturday, we could not take any risks with any more players.

“Igor Vetokele, Simon Makienok, Christian Ceballos and Reza are all injured and will not play on the weekend so I needed to make sure everyone stayed fit.

“I knew before the game that we had a short squad and because of that I had to rotate.”

September 21 marked the 30th anniversary when Charlton had to leave the Valley to groundshare with their South-East London rivals - the cup tie could not have come at a better time.

The hosts dominated the game from start to finish and made easy work of Luzon’s men.

Two quick-fire goals following the restart meant Charlton were up against it.

After pulling a goal back to make it 2-1, the Addicks had a lifeline.

However, they had to play the last 15 minutes with ten men as Alou Diarra was shown two yellows after both his fouls resulted in penalties.

Luzon added: “In the second-half, the referee made a mistake and we should’ve had a penalty.

“It was a huge decision which didn’t go our way.

“After that, at 3-1, ten players, the game is over.”

Despite the thrashing to former Charlton manager Alan Pardew’s men, the SE7 chief looked to take the positives out of the game.

Luzon insisted that morale in the camp would not be affected.

He explained: “In the first-half, there were a lot of positives, we organised ourselves and the young players performed well.

“One result will not damage the morale – tonight is finished and we now need to focus on Cardiff and take the positives into the game.

“We will go there without any excuses and do our best.”

Despite the backlash that might come his way, the Israeli tactician had a message for the travelling fans.

He said: “I can say that all the players, for every minute, gave everything but unfortunately when we had ten men, it was too difficult to come back against Premier League opposition.”

Charlton’s winless run stretches to five games.