Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones has warned his side that they will fail in this season’s objectives unless they tighten up at the back.
The Addicks shipped three goals to National League Southend at the weekend, on top of the five they have conceded in their last three League One outings.
Jones’ side kept five shutouts in their first nine games in League One this season – already equalling the amount they kept throughout the entirety of the last league campaign.
But key absences of centre-half Lloyd Jones and full-back Kayne Ramsay seem to have disrupted a backline that wilted under Southend’s attacking play at Roots Hall on Saturday.
Jones reiterated that his side had failed to do the basics again in the cup tie, which the Addicks won 4-3.
He said: “If we want to go where we want to, we have to [improve on the basics]. We’re so good at certain things. We’re scoring goals. Two against Barnsley and we draw the game. Two against Wrexham and we draw the game.
“We’re a side that works so hard defensively. The first nine games we kept five clean sheets. Now, suddenly, that has gone out the window. By doing what we’re doing at the minute, we won’t do what we want to do. Sooner or later your luck is going to run out. We have to do the basics better.
“It was a great cup tie. But when you’re a manager, you don’t want that. I’ll sit back and watch it and know that we’ve won and yeh, it will be topsy turvy. On Match of the Day tonight it will be one of the first ones that they show. But for a manger that wants control and doesn’t want his heartrate going through 190, that wasn’t the type of game I wanted.
“If we had been better and Southend had really carved us open for goals, then you can say we were good and I’m delighted but I’m more worried about certain things that we didn’t do well today.”
