Charlton’s points tally doesn’t tell the whole story so far – Chris Solly

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Charlton stalwart Chris Solly thinks the Addicks’ current points tally is a false representation of their performances so far.

Charlton have only mustered four points from as many games so far this campaign, with Tuesday evening’s late defeat to Peterborough Lee Bowyer’s side’s second reverse of the season.

It was the second time the South Londoners had lost late on, having suffered the same fate at Sunderland on the opening day of the campaign – both games in which the Addicks had looked good value for a point at the least.

“It doesn’t look great when you say it like that,” admitted Solly of his side’s return of just four points so far.

“But it’s still early days. I think the performances have probably merited more than what we’ve got. Unlucky at Sunderland, unlucky again today. We could quite easily have had two points more, maybe even four points more. I think maybe if we look at it after ten or fifteen games, the league will start to take shape.

“We should have four, five or six back (from injury) in the next couple of weeks which is massive for us. Obviously at the start of the season we were really tight on players but once we’ve got the squad – for example this week, three games in a week, we had to rotate and bring in fresh legs – you’ll see hopefully the results will start to improve.”

Posh’s winner on Tuesday evening came courtesy of a controversial penalty awarded against Lewis Page for allegedly bundling Ivan Toney over in the Addicks box.

Bowyer fumed about the decision and club captain Solly shared his sentiments after the game.

“There’s only so much I can say,” he explained,

“But I was there straight away, straight onto the ref. He couldn’t tell me who gave the foul or what it was for. I imagine someone radioed through to him because it took him about a minute and a half to say ‘it was number three’. He didn’t have a clue why he’d given it.

“As players there’s nothing we can do about it. Pagey’s done brilliant at the back stick, shielded the ball away. It’s never been a foul and the ref’s given it. It’s killed us. I thought in the second-half we played really well, the best we’ve played in a while. Had a lot of pressure. It felt like the goal was coming. But for them to go up the other end and get given that – it’s a killer blow. As players we’re devastated in the dressing room.

“Right now, it hurts. But if they’re the pacesetters and we put in a performance like that then there’s no reason for us not to take a lot of positives from that and look forward to Saturday’s game (at home to Fleetwood). Even though we’ve lost, we felt like we put in a performance. You’ve seen there, the fans clapped us off after a loss which very rarely happens. It shows they were happy with the performance we gave. Saturday is a massive game now, we’ve got to come away with three points, there’s no two ways about it. We’ve got to win Saturday and that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS