Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones said today’s 3-0 defeat at Wrexham proved a game too far for his side – who had to battle with injury disruptions in the build-up.
The Addicks knew they had to win to keep their top two hopes alive going into the final day next weekend but found themselves two down inside 18 minutes after strikes from Olly Rathbone and Sam Smith.
Smith added his second late on to seal the Red Dragon’s promotion to the Championship.
Charlton will now have to focus on finishing strongly at home to Burton Albion before a play-off campaign which will kick-off with a two-legged semi-final tie against either Wycombe Wanderers or Stockport County.
Jones said: “We were second best all game, they were excellent today. We didn’t do the basics well. We’ve had a really tough week. This isn’t an excuse but a really tough week. We lost (Luke) Berry, we lost Thierry (Small), we lost Gassan (Ahadme), we lost Ashley Maynard-Brewer, we lost Lloyd (Jones). Lloyd hasn’t trained all week, he’s been on more painkillers than I can imagine and he wasn’t right today.
“That seemed to have rocked us. We had too many players that got outfought, outworked and they were thoroughly deserving of their win. But look, we can’t be too negative, we have to concentrate now on the play-offs.
“It was a long shot for us to get automatic because of the November we had where we had to really come from behind. We were on a fantastic run, but today we were second best.
“Let’s not forget, in the window we streamlined the squad, got seven out, took two loans, they’ve spent in the region five million quid and brought in some real quality and probably that was the difference today.
“Smith was probably the difference in the two teams because there wasn’t any big chances, but he was probably the difference.
“There was probably four chances in the game first half, they had two, we had two and they took theirs. We didn’t deserve anything from the game today, they were better than us and it was probably just a little bit too much today.
“We lost a lot of big players today and Lloydy was nowhere near him. To have the disruption that we’ve had this week and to come here and they gave me everything right to the end, they still keep working.
“That’s the positive. But now we’ve got to dust ourselves down, we’ve got to finish the season and then go into a play-off campaign.
“We need all our good players back. That’s the most important thing firstly and then we’ve got to go into a game next week. Try and win the game and then continue the momentum because we haven’t lost many games in the last 25, 26 games but today we’ve just probably one too many.”
PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS
