Nathan Jones said he felt his side were “outworked and outbattled” as the Addicks lost 3-1 to Cardiff City on Saturday afternoon.
The Bluebirds controlled large parts of the fixture at the Cardiff City Stadium and were value for the three points.
Speaking post-match, Jones said: “I’m a bit shocked and I’m very embarrassed. I’ll take full responsibility because I’m the manager.
“We’ve worked religiously at passing the football, on being better in possession and trying to evolve, playing attacking players but today Cardiff outworked us, they outbattled us and they were stronger and more aggressive, which I think is unacceptable for our team. Then they passed the ball better, they had more shots, more possession, more everything. It’s a tough one to take.
“I can accept that sometimes people have more possession than us and occasionally they might have more shots than us but being outworked and outbattled and then even when we had opportunities to pass the football, there was no control in anything we did.
“Good players, good footballers that I watch every day wilted and then how we defended our box today was very, very poor. I take full responsibility because I pick the team and if I’m honest I could have made nine substitutions because Arthur Okonkwo and Miles Leaburn were probably the two that came out with any credit. The rest of them, they were unacceptable performances.”
The Addicks were 2-1 down at half-time and Jones made two changes to try and change the game.
“Not to throw anyone under the bus,” he explained, “the two we brought off weren’t having great games. We felt we needed more strength to deal with them a little bit more. Ironically when we started [the second half] we probably had two of the most clear-cut chances. We had three clear-cut chances because TC’s [goal] was a one-on-one, Charlie Kelman has a one-on-one and Karlan [Grant] has a one-on-one. We had three one-on-ones but all that would have done would have papered over the cracks. In another world we could have scored two or three goals because we should, they are clear-cut chances but we didn’t. In between and in both boxes today we were a mile off it.”
The result comes after back-to-back clean sheets at home, which followed a 4-0 loss at Stoke City.
Jones said: “We’ve looked weak in our last two away games. In our last two home games, we’ve kept two clean sheets but we’ve not done what we’ve needed to do in our last two away games – we’ve been very, very poor at doing the basics of football and normally we do those really well. We want to evolve, we want to be better but if we can’t do that then we have to go back to basics which is something that we’re going to have to do.”
Josh Edwards came on shortly before full-time for his first minutes in nearly a year after suffering an ankle injury in September 2025.
“I’m pleased to see him back on the pitch because we’ve missed him and for him personally,” said Jones. “What we need to do, we need to get everyone back up to speed. We need to get Billy [Koumetio] back, we need to get Kayne [Ramsay] back and then we’re stronger as a unit so we can at least know what we get. All over the pitch we were nowhere near, our intensity, how we ran, how we closed down, we were nowhere near.”
The Addicks have taken 12 points from their opening eight Championship games heading into the September international break.
Jones said: “If I’m honest we started brilliantly and then it’s been disappointing. I would have liked us to have gone on.
“I’m looking forward to having a little break, hopefully we get a few people back. That performances today was unacceptable, I feel for our fans.”
