Inside View with Charlton Athletic manager Phil Parkinson
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A few days after our play-off semi-final defeat to Swindon,
it’s still difficult to believe our season is over.
After losing the first leg, I never considered a scenario in
which we’d lose. I was only thinking about winning.
The lads put on a terrific display on Monday but it just wasn’t
enough. I’m sure when we go through the match in detail, we’ll find
areas in which we’d have liked to have done better but I thought
the lads have put the spirit back into Charlton throughout this
season and Monday night typified that.
They gave everything and going out on penalties is a cruel way
to lose.
The dressing room was quiet afterwards – I’ve never been in a
dressing room with players so distraught.
There’s not much you can do in those circumstances. But I’m
proud of them and they should be proud of themselves.
People say that for an entire season to come down to spot-kicks
is incredibly harsh.
But no one has ever found a better way to resolve things and we
can’t say that the play-offs are a bad thing because we missed out
on automatic promotion and the play-offs gave us another
chance.
We did all we could to win the game in 90 and 120 minutes. Even
when we went down to 10 men we kept two players up front and played
4-3-2 and we hit the post twice in extra-time.
So it hurts but you just have to get over the pain and move on.
The pain will heal over the next three or four days and we will
start to think about the future. We’ll have a couple of days’ break
and then we’ll be back in.
It’s been a tough few years to be a Charlton fan and this
doesn’t make it any easier but I hope the supporters recognise they
saw a team and a squad of players giving it everything.
All the supporters I speak to have said they’ve seen
performances this year where they’ve seen the lads give everything
and that’s what this football club is all about.
The players have restored some pride back in the club this
season and the fans have also done themselves and us proud because
the atmosphere on Monday night, for example, was fantastic.
Thursday, May 20 2010
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