Holden hails ‘good day’ as Charlton get back on track

Charlton boss Dean Holden hailed a “good day” for his side as they got back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory at Exeter.

Two goals in the first 18 minutes from Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Corey Blackett-Taylor did the damage and forced Exeter into an early change, which paid off when substitute Demetri Mitchell pulled a goal back.

But despite plenty of possession, Exeter rarely looked like scoring as the Addicks bounced back from their 2-1 home loss to Bolton to claim a fourth win in their last five league matches.

“Teams that want to have a strong season don’t lose two games on the spin, so that was part of our mentality,” Holden said.

“We scored outstanding goals in that opening period and we were very good value for that 2-0 lead. Some of our play was exceptional and we talked about coming here on a good pitch and showing the best of ourselves with the ball.

“We got a bit panicky after scoring the two goals and started slashing at clearances and we have got to do better with their goal. We got the press wrong in terms of the way we went after the ball and they got through us too easily.

“At that point their crowd got a bit more energy about them and there was a bit more intent in the way they were playing so to get in at 2-1 was important for us.

“We were the better team for 25 minutes, they were probably the better team in the rest of the first half and the rest of the second half was pretty even. All in all, it has been a good day from us.”

Exeter boss Gary Caldwell rued his side’s poor start to the game.

He said: “It was a game I don’t think we should have lost. But when we have defensive actions like we did in the first half, then we can’t always chase a game at 2-0 down and expect to score three goals.

“I thought we played the whole game positively, but for defensive actions. When you give goals away at this level – or any level, to be honest – then you are going to make the game really difficult and that’s what we did today.

“We worked on it last week and were clear on where their dangers were and both of those dangers scored.

“As a staff, we work extremely hard for what we are playing against and when it’s our responsibility and teams do different things, then we will accept that, but we were clear on where the problems were and we didn’t deal with it.

“We can’t keep throwing games away as we are. This is a great opportunity for this bunch of players and football is a short career and you can’t get them back. They don’t appreciate the opportunity that we have, the players that we have and the quality that we have and that’s frustrating.”