Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones was highly critical of his side not doing the “basics” well enough in tonight’s 2-2 draw at Barnsley.
The Addicks looked set for all three points after substitute Luke Berry had scored twice in the closing stages to cancel out Davis Keillor-Dunn’s 34th-minute opener.
But Tykes striker Max Watters levelled in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time.
Charlton extended their unbeaten run to three matches, two draws in succession. They are 11th in the League One table but only one point behind Huddersfield in fifth.
Barnsley had 20 efforts to Charlton’s eight—nine and five on target, respectively—with Miles Leaburn, making his first start since November, also producing an excellent goal-line clearance to deny Jon Russell.
Jones, who served a one-match touchline ban for three bookings, said: “I’m bitterly disappointed. The level of performance was a mile off what I expected, what we prepared for and what we did.
“If we had done the basics better tonight, then we’d have won the game. But we didn’t and even the chances they had if we won our headers tonight—both of their goals came from us not winning headers. They hit the bar from us not winning headers.
“We needed someone that has been doing that for all of his career, to be fair, to get us out of a little bit of a hole. We should’ve won the game, to be fair, but even in the 94th minute I wasn’t sure of us seeing it out because some of the stuff I saw tonight wasn’t stuff we work on – a little bit crazy.
“It is a point on the road and Barnsley is a difficult place to come; another game unbeaten but I’m disappointed with the performance.
“We missed a host of chances at the weekend to put it to bed and tonight, when we actually took the chances we had, we couldn’t see it out. The level of performance from some people tonight wasn’t what I expected.
“If we want to go where we want to go—we didn’t win a header all night. You come away from home—we set up to play football , be fluent, and have a Charlton side to be proud of—but we didn’t do the basics. Last season we did the basics really, really well—we headed it, defended the box, and were difficult to beat. Tonight we weren’t and that’s because the basics weren’t done right.
“I’m not sure if anyone played well in the first half. I’m not sure if anyone came out of it with any credit. What we did was match them up and say, ‘Okay, let’s go man for man and see if you’re better than us.’. It gave us a bit more of a foothold in the game.
“Luke has been unfortunate to be out of the side—because that is what he does. He is the top scorer and scores from midfield. That is probably my fault that I didn’t start him.
“We made the changes because we weren’t doing the basics. I had defenders who didn’t head it; I had defenders who didn’t defend the box; I had midfielders that got overrun—we had four-v-three in there and got overrun. That is not what I want from my football team. Anyone who sees my football team would say, ‘They are at it’. We were a mile off where we needed to be tonight.
“On the weekend we were excellent—absolutely at it but despite being dominant, we didn’t win. Tonight we weren’t and got a point.
“Tonight we should’ve snatched a win that we didn’t deserve.
“We can take positives from it that they showed character to come from 1-0 down and have a midfield player that can score goals, is top for this level, and it is a point on the road.
“It was a difficult night for me because for whatever reason I was in the stands – I don’t feel I can affect the game like that. I felt they needed driving tonight because they were a mile off it, the intensity and aggression.”
