CHRIS Powell was left ruing a missed opportunity on Sunday as Charlton were dumped out of the FA Cup at the hands of Sheffield United.

Wembley beckoned for the winner of the quarter-final clash but The Addicks were beaten 2-0 away to the League One side.

Callum Harriot fired wide with an open goal at his mercy with proceedings level and was made to pay as Ryan Flynn and John Brayford got United’s goals soon after.

“It’s a low point in my managerial career because the opportunity to go to Wembley was there but all credit to Sheffield United because they were the ones that grasped it,” said Powell.

“We had that chance to break the deadlock and that was the game-changer for me.

“After that Sheffield went 1-0 up and then got the deflected goal for 2-0, which left us a big mountain to climb.

“To be fair to Callum (Harriott) he was stretching and it wasn’t a chance that you thought was really gilt-edged but I have seen him take them.

“It is really tough because all out fans came up and showed great support but we just couldn’t give them what they wanted.”

And with this weekend’s league results going against the Addicks in their absence they now sit bottom of the Championship.

Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall and Doncaster all won, leaving Powell’s side four points off safety, propping up the rest of the table.

But the Addicks have at least three games in hand on the teams around them and Powell is now ready for a relegation battle.

He said: “Sadly it didn’t work out for us today but now we have got to concentrate on staying in the Championship.

“The FA Cup has ended for us so now we have got to do our level best to get as many points as we can from the remaining league games.

“We will have to see who is right and who is fit because we’ve got some huge games now starting with Huddersfield at home and Millwall away.

"Every single game is of great value because of where we are at and what happened over the weekend with the league results so we’ll have to get over this pretty quickly.

“But it’s in our hands – it’s up to us to nick a couple of wins from our games in hand so it is all about what we do now.”