Charlton Athletic midfielder Bradley Pritchard writes for the KM Group
Losing 2-1 after conceding two goals in the final 10
minutes is never easy to take – as a player or a supporter – but
Saturday’s match against Crystal Palace provides the perfect
pick-me-up.
Everyone knows how much the match matters and we’ll be going to
Selhurst Park to get something back after losing when we played the
Eagles at The Valley earlier this season.
We certainly owe Palace after that first fixture and having been
on a good run away from home, we will go there with confidence,
despite last weekend’s defeat against Sheffield Wednesday.
We have to look at that as a freak result and we know we have to
bounce back and there is little need to try to motivate us more
than we already are. We are certainly ready for the match.
When we played against Palace earlier this season, Bradley
Wright-Phillips had a goal that was ruled out for offside and if we
had gone into the second half 1-0 up, it would have been a
different game.
Later on in the match, we hit the bar and had one cleared off
the line, so those are the key moments which didn’t fall for
us.
If you need to be motivated to play your rivals who have already
beaten you at home this season, there is a problem.
I know that we have sold our allocation of 3,000 tickets and
there will no doubt be a big and boisterous crowd present.
Playing in front of big crowds is one thing that I’ve had to get
used to quickly in the short time that I’ve been a professional
footballer.
At (former club) Hayes & Yeading United, I could have a few
bad games and there was only 700 people there. If I had a bad game,
I could forget about it. At this level, there were 20,000 fans at
The Valley for last Saturday’s match, so there is extra pressure to
perform.
That’s good in a way because it only makes you better. You have
to cope with it, so I guess it’s a bit of a survival thing. You
have no choice but to survive.
A few people wondered why I didn’t shoot myself against
Sheffield Wednesday when I set up Johnnie Jackson for our goal but
I felt that I had to play the percentage game.
Johnnie is on a nice run of form and always puts them away, so I
was just happy to be involved.
30/01/13
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