6:02pm Saturday 13th March 2010
By Paul Green
CHARLTON boss Phil Parkinson has apologised to the club’s fans after today’s 4-0 derby humiliation at The Den.
The Addicks were simply brushed aside by the Lions on a day to forget for everybody associated with the SE7 club and the manager was keen to let supporters know he was aware of their pain.
Parkinson admitted: “It was by far the worst performance of the season.
“I imagine the fans will be hurting as they are driving home but I can assure them nobody is hurting more than I am.
“We can only apologise because we know there is a lot of local pride at stake and we can only move onto the next game, which is another local derby.”
He added: “We spoke about playing in these types of atmospheres and we spoke about the Orient and the Southend games.
“We said as a team throughout the season you’ve got to learn and get your mindset right for these big games.
“I wanted to see an improvement in our team today and we’ve taken a step backwards, so we need to get back on track next week against Gillingham.”
Parkinson warned his side what to expect in the second half after Darren Ward’s 44th minute goal had put the Lions in front, but conceded his side had failed to rise to the challenge.
He said: “We said at half-time we had done a lot of things well apart from the goal, but expect Millwall to have got a lift from that goal and come out really firing in the first 15 minutes and we’ve got to match that.
“We didn’t do it, we got put on the back foot and we never recovered from it. It is a disappointing thing.
“I thought in the first half we had opportunities to make things happen and just the final ball let us down.
“Up to that point, until that final third, we hadn’t done bad but as well as defensively, our composure and possession in the second half went out of the window.
“In the first half I thought we did alright up to the goal.
“It was a poor goal to concede and in the second half there were too many mistakes.”
Parkinson added: “You can’t be in a big derby like today and make too many individual mistakes or as many as we did and expect to get anything out of the game.
“All of the goals stem from basic errors.
“We spoke about in the week about coming here and doing the basics well first and foremost and in the first half up until the corner, we did that.
“In the second half too many individual mistakes cost us.”
Parkinson refused to single out individuals for criticism afterwards, or be drawn on Christian Dailly’s own goal which made it 2-0.
But he again blasted his side for their abject second half display, saying: “I thought we stopped doing the right things in the second half.
“When you are 2-0 down at Millwall, you make sure you remain solid as a unit and as a team to make sure you don’t concede the third first and foremost.
“If you get one back, then you can go and build from there but we became too loose and not enough players did the jobs they had been asked to do.
“There are not many times I’ve sat here this season and been critical of the team, but in the second half we weren’t good enough.”
He added: “They’re an honest group of lads. Some of them have had individually a bad day, but collectively as a team we weren’t good enough.
“I’ve asked every player to look at themselves, don’t look at other players and say: ‘Well, he has cost us this.’
“Make sure you have a good look at yourself in that second half performance because we needed strong characters to stand up and be counted at a place like Millwall and we didn’t get it.”
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