Michael Appleton, the head coach of Charlton Athletic, was able to draw encouraging conclusions from his team’s performance against Bolton Wanderers in the second half of today’s match.
The Addicks’ league winning streak of five games at The Valley came to an end as they fell to their formidable opponents 2-0.
Randell Williams, a former winger for Crystal Palace, curled in from the edge of the box to give Bolton the lead in the sixteenth minute.
With Terell Thomas waited to return to the pitch following treatment, Dion Charles extended their lead by smashing home from inside the area while Charlton was down a man.
After Appleton took over for Dean Holden in September, the Addicks were undefeated; however, they have recently suffered back-to-back losses.
The Scottish midfielder attempted to close down Charles before he scored his 10th goal of the season, but referee Geoff Eltringham prevented Fraser, which infuriated the former Oxford, Lincoln, and Blackpool manager.
One objective is a fantastic ending, which occasionally occurs and over which there is little control, according to Appleton.
“Once a player is taken off the pitch, I receive the decision. Eltringham indicated that he didn’t need to cover the full pitch because the ball was far enough down that side.
The fact that the ball came from the side Terell would be defending and the referee prevented Scott Fraser from tracking it made it twice as difficult.
“I can’t be too upset, other than the two goals. Although 
I’m definitely upset to lose 2-0 against such a strong team, we outperformed Bolton in terms of anticipated goals (xG). Though it might be difficult to accept, I can genuinely believe that. It’s simple to give up and move on when you’re losing, but I have a lot of trust in the players’ response in the second half.
It demonstrates that they possess some mettle. Recent weeks have seen them demonstrate that. We received a prize.
“In the first half, we weren’t aggressive enough and we were a little bit hesitant around them. It’s likely that we respected them excessively. From that vantage point, I will accept accountability. We have a bit more vigour here. The guys had several opportunities to accomplish that much more. There was apprehension about what had transpired in the stadium when you let up the second goal in the way we did. It wasn’t the players’ fault because the ball took 38 seconds to return to that part of the pitch.
The most annoying thing was that Scott kept being obstructed. We were penalised for both the referee’s obstruction and for taking a player off the pitch.
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