New Charlton manager Nathan Jones admitted he “learnt a lot” about his team as his first match in charge ended in a 2-0 defeat at fellow-strugglers Reading.
The Addicks were grateful to goalkeeper Harry Isted for keeping them in the game in the first half with fine saves to deny Lewis Wing and Sam Smith twice.
But Isted was finally beaten by Femi Azeez from close range in the 66th minute, with the same player then thundering home a volley 10 minutes later to secure the points. Both finishes followed Amadou Mbengue long throws.
Charlton have now failed to win in 13 league matches and Jones knows his players must do better on the pitch.
“Look, I learnt a lot,” said Jones, who had not managed since being sacked by Southampton last February.
“We didn’t do the basics well enough on a few occasions. The players gave me everything but we’ll take something from it and make sure that we improve in the future.
“On the pitch, it’s the only place that you get to learn. On the training ground, it’s a bit of a controlled environment. That’s when they train with each other, they’re not out of their comfort zone.
“When we take them out of their comfort zone, you learn quite a lot and we have today. But we have to be better in terms of what we did and we can take it from there.
“If you can do the basics well, you will win football games. But we’re not doing the basics well enough, so that has to improve.
“We were undone today from two long throws. We can’t keep not winning a game, that’s the frustrating thing.”
Reading have lost only two of their last 15 league games and now sit three places above the bottom three.
“It’s always a difficult game when the other team has just changed its manager during the week,” Reading boss Ruben Seles, who worked with Jones at Southampton, said.
“We knew the characteristics of Nathan but you’re never sure whether it’s going to go that way or he will change it a little bit.
“We expected a 5-3-2 from Charlton and maybe to be aggressive on the front foot and put the right balls into space.
“It took us a long time to set up the game, to get the ball down and play in possession. But after that, I think that the team was powerful. We knew what we wanted to do and then in the entire game, we were on top.
“With Amadou’s long throws, we have added another weapon to our game. That is why we are using it. If we cannot score in open play or in the other situations, then we have the long throws.
“We also had a couple of good corners and free-kicks when we were dangerous as well. Our team is growing and developing at set-plays.”
