Charlton manager Russell Slade has insinuated that the belief within the Addicks’ camp has not died down, despite exiting the EFL Cup first round after a 1-0 defeat away at Cheltenham Town.
A Harry Pell strike, who coincidentally learnt his trade in SE7, was enough to put Gary Johnson’s men through as Charlton fell to another loss on the back of Saturday’s opening-day league defeat to Bury.
Slade’s men did create opportunities at Waddon Road, with Roger Johnson and Nicky Ajose going close, but the visitors could not get the ball into the net, culminating in another frustrating evening for the South East London side.
Nonetheless, the 55-year old still believes Charlton will learn from early mistakes and build upon them as the season progresses.
He said: “We want to win football matches and I thought we set our stool out quite well early on; it was a decent cup tie.
“We created opportunities to get a goal tonight, but it wasn’t to be.
“There is a great belief in the changing room of what we are doing, it’s not coming out on the pitch but there were parts of enterprising football there that we need to build on.”
Charlton dominated possession but only managed to work the goalkeeper on two occasions. However, Slade felt there were still enough opportunities created to score despite the lack of efforts on target.
“I just spoke to Nicky Ajose and he’s disappointed that he hasn’t put one away tonight.
“I thought we had chances to get about but it’s about confidence and I felt we were snatching at chances to pout one away.
“I’m not making excuses, we’ve lost two games but can we improve? Certainly.”
After the match against Bury, Slade flirted with the possibility of a new signing before the clash against the Robins and while that hasn’t come through as of yet, he was still adamant that a new face will arrive in the near future.
“We’re very close,” he said when questioned how soon a new arrive will turn up.
“It’s not an issue - it happens. You want to get then done and sometimes they’re agreed then it changes.
“We waited for Rudd and Pearce, we got them. I’m still very confident.”
Meanwhile, Slade admitted Ricky Holmes was replaced in the second half due to an injury but he’s scheduled to still be fit for Saturday’s clash against Northampton.
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