| TOP STORIES |  | | | | | | | FEATURES | | | | | | MAYOR NEWS | | | | TRAVEL | | | | COMPETITIONS | | |
|
|
|
Pards: We've come up short
CHARLTON boss Alan Pardew has conceded his side have been found out more than once too often this season in the Championship.
Saturday's 1-0 defeat at QPR confirmed the Addicks would have to spend another season in English football's second tier and the manager says the disappointing experience from this time around will stand his side in good stead.
A defensive mistake from Paddy McCarthy gifted the Hoops the only goal of the game on 15 minutes as Dexter Blackstock found the back of the net.
Substitute Chris Iwelumo blazed over a great opportunity to draw the visitors level, but it would have been harsh luck on QPR if they had because the visitors created very little on a disappointing afternoon in west London.
Despite the poor display, Pardew claimed it wasn't the worst his side have played this season when asked.
He said: "Sometimes the opposition can have a hand in that and QPR didn't give us anything to manoeuvre today.
"They played a game which pressurised us and kept the pitch very, very tight and did a good job on their side.
"On our side with our season on the line, for sure we wanted to play a much better game than we did.
"I think every game, especially when you get near the end of the season and it is highlighted in big games at Champions League level, when the big games come, you need your players to perform.
"In this last eight to 10 games, unfortunately we haven't performed so in some ways that answers itself."
Charlton were many people's favourites to bounce back to the riches of the Premiership at the first attempt, but the boss said it was always going to be a tough task with the huge change in personnel at the club.
Pardew explained: "People always would look at the amount of time we had in the Premiership and assume we will be strong enough when we go down.
"We sold Darren Bent and had to move a number of other players on for financial reasons and we changed a few as well.
"It was always going to be a difficult season to be able to adjust to this division and it has been tough.
"I think some of our games have been tougher because of the opposition we are and people have got themselves up for us.
"We have not been able to cope with that and I really feel strength and steel, which I mentioned last week, have been an area where we have fallen down on in this division and a little bit of that was evident today."
He added: "You looked at the start and the squads and the names and it all looks impressive, but this is a different type of football in this division.
"The adjustment has been difficult for some of our Premier League players or players who have played in the Premier League, the same as Sheffield United.
"We've had very similar seasons although they are having a strong second half whereas they had a weak first half."
Despite the obvious frustration at being unable to make an instant return to the top flight, Pardew believes his side can learn a lot from the disappointment for next season.
He said: "When issues are faced and when problems arise, there is opportunity and that is how I view it.
"The opportunity now is to get stronger and use this extra time we are going to have of not being in the play-offs to make sure we steal a march on other clubs for players who are out of contract, get ourselves established and work out a plan for how we are going to attack next year.
"We will use the experience we've needed to gain because this has been a steep learning curve for a lot of players."
He added: "It is a very tough league and I think next year it is going to be even tougher.
"QPR are only going to get stronger in the summer because they are going to invest and there are a number of other clubs who will do that.
"There will be three good Premiership clubs coming down so it won't get any easier.
"For us we will have experience of this year."
10:33am Monday 21st April 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: David, H Block on 8:23am Tue 22 Apr 08
Next season we have got to put better performances in at home as this is what has cost us, our away form has been good enough.
I think a few players need to look at themselves and there performances as well as Pardew and think have they done enough to stay... I would probably say 4 or 5 should be nervous about there futures....
On a positive note well done to Matt Holland for getting Player of the Year which was truly deserved as he always shows 110% in every game and pretty much stood out head and shoulder against the rest.
Next season we have got to put better performances in at home as this is what has cost us, our away form has been good enough.
I think a few players need to look at themselves and there performances as well as Pardew and think have they done enough to stay... I would probably say 4 or 5 should be nervous about there futures....
On a positive note well done to Matt Holland for getting Player of the Year which was truly deserved as he always shows 110% in every game and pretty much stood out head and shoulder against the rest.
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
