Message understood
Phil Parkinson admitted the pressure was on prior to Saturday's resounding victory against Milton Keynes Dons, and insisted the 5-1 scoreline sent out a message to Charlton's League One rivals.
Prior to the encounter between second and third in the table at The Valley, the Addicks had lost their last three games and had been dumped out of the FA Cup by non-League Northwich Victoria.
The Valley boss was delighted by his players' display, however, and emphasised the hard work that had gone into the performance on the pitch, at the training ground and on the terraces.
"It was an important match because we knew that if we hadn't got a favourable result, we would have come out of the top two,” Parkinson told the media after the final whistle. "It's also important we put pressure on Leeds United.”
The Addicks have been in the automatic promotion places all season, and are now just four points behind the league leaders, although the Yorkshire club - not in action over the weekend due to the international break - has a game in hand.
"The pressure was on us, especially after the past couple of results, but I thought everyone was fantastic, including the crowd," said Phil. "It's been a long week for everyone at the club, and I can't say I've enjoyed it. You look for a response from the players and they gave it, but the supporters were terrific, too, especially after we went a goal behind. You need that if you are going to be successful."
Asked what the players had been working on at Sparrows Lane in advance of the match, Parkinson said he had emphasised the importance of the basics.
"We've been speaking about commitment and work rate, and getting back to how we were playing earlier in the season," he said. "I don't think I needed to speak to them about quality and technical ability, because we've got players who have got that anyway, but we need to make sure we've got that competitive edge to our game."
He added: "The lads are enjoying the feeling of winning convincingly, and it's a lot different to how I felt after the Northwich game. I think the players should enjoy that feeling, but they need to remember how hard they worked to get that feeling. That's the key.
"Football is a very competitive game. People's jobs are on the line, people pay a lot of money investing in clubs, so you have to put yourself on the line to win a game of football, and I've never been involved in a victory where I've come off the pitch and it's been easy. People might look at the 5-1 scoreline and think it was a stroll in the park, but it wasn't.
"I think a lot of people in the league and around the country would have been looking at us. They will have been looking to see how we responded after we made a good start to the season, and then had a setback, and I think we've answered any questions with flying colours.
"Now we've got to go to Yeovil next week and compete for every ball as we did against MK Dons. If we do that, I think we'll have a good day."
Central to the good display, literally, was skipper Nicky Bailey.
Before the match, Parkinson admitted he felt the midfielder had suffered a dip in form in recent fixtures, and called for Bailey to step up his game.
The 25-year-old responded to his manager's comments in the best possible fashion. Restored to his favoured position in the centre by Parkinson, Bailey scored one goal, hit the woodwork and was at the heart of the Addicks' positive performance.
"I thought Bailey was tremendous," enthused Parkinson. "He's got real leadership quality, and six goals already this season from midfield is a terrific return. We have a lot of midfield players and he's been very successful on the left. His return of goals is very, very good. He's done well there, but he probably needed a lift by going back into the centre.
"I have spoken to him about his captain's role, and he's the type of captain who leads by example; when players see him going in for tackles and putting himself on the line, they respond to that, and I thought he did that really well."
Bailey could have added to his tally, with his free-kicks floating on the swirling wind causing MK Dons goalkeeper Willy Gueret all kinds of problems.
"He used the conditions well," said Phil. "In English football, you can play in lots of different conditions and I keep saying that to our foreign boys - the likes of Semedo and Racon, for example.
"That's English football; you have to adapt to conditions from week to week and deploy different systems and different styles of play. That's what it's all about if you are going to be successful in this country."
Parkinson, who brought Akpo Sodje in on loan on the morning of the game, also praised the display of fellow loan striker David Mooney, who scored his first goal for the club to draw the Addicks level soon after Aaron Wilbraham had given the visitors an early lead.
Just three days earlier, Mooney was used as a sole striker in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy defeat to Southampton at St Mary's. But on Saturday he benefited from the presence of strike partner Deon Burton and was a constant thorn in the side of the Dons' defence.
"Mooney did well," said Phil. "He had a difficult task on Wednesday, playing up front on his own, but today he showed his intelligence. He's a real thinking player, and he makes good runs."
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