Russell Slade hopes his appointment at Charlton represents a “new beginning” for the club.

A dismal season ended in relegation from the Championship as three separate managers failed to produce the desired results in SE7.

Poor performances on the pitch, along with general anger at Roland Duchatelet’s running of the club, has seen protests stepped up towards the Belgian.

Supporters disrupted several matches last season and staged striking protests in and out of the Valley stadium.

Slade admits he was aware of the level of frustration among supporters but says the club want to “reconnect” with the fanbase.

“Of course, I’m aware. You see it on the TV from time to time,” the 55-year-old said in his first press conference as Charlton manager.

“But I just think going forward this is a new start. A new beginning. I think there is a desire to reconnect with the fans. I think that’s important.

“You don’t achieve anything unless you are all together in this. And that will clearly take time.”

The former Cardiff boss added: “But appointing me is something that is different and shows an intent in terms of what we’re trying to achieve here. And there will be more in terms of what we try to do.

“There will be a little shift in strategy philosophy going forward.”

Having met with Belgian owner Duchatelet and chief executive Katrien Meire, Slade says there is a clear willingness from the board to “put things right”.

He believes his appointment is an example of the regime learning from their mistakes.

“There was two meetings and I was very pleased with what I heard,” Slade said.

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“There was a willingness to put things right and move the club forward and I was quite excited by that. It felt like a project I could get stuck into.

“I was very pleased with the honesty.

“It’s a big thing to say you’ve made mistakes, it’s not easy. But people do make mistakes and the important thing is we learn from them going forward.

“They’ve made a start appointing a British manager which has not happened for a good number of years.”

Hundreds of fans have decided not to renew their season tickets and say they will not be returning until Duchatelet sells up.

Slade hopes “good choices” will help begin to build the bridge between the fanbase and the regime.

The manager said: “These things take time don’t they?

"It’s not going to happen overnight – it’s the little things I think and we’ve got to make good choices to show the fans that we are reconnecting and there is a trust going forward.

“We need to get that identity back really as a community club going forward and a togetherness because unless you are all together it’s really difficult to achieve your targets – we need to be pulling in the same direction.

“There’s opposition to that at the minute but hopefully I can put that right on the pitch and give them something to be proud of.

“Players going out with provide and spirit and if we can get that going hopefully fans will come back on board.”

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