JOHNNIE Jackson revealed manager Chris Powell had plenty to say at half-time during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
The Addicks trailed 1-0 at the break to Lewis McGugan’s 17th minute opener but Forest could have been out of sight after completely dominating the opening period.
Sam Hutchinson added a second for the hosts in the 75th minute before substitute Ricardo Fuller’s late header went in off Forest keeper Lee Camp to set up a tense finale.
But the home side deservedly held on with Jackson admitting Powell had torn the proverbial strip off his players at the interval.
The Valley skipper said: “We got told in no uncertain terms from the manager that it wasn’t good enough but we knew that anyway.
“He said he wanted a response, which I think he got in the second half.
“I think there was a drastic improvement but they are a quality side and you can’t afford to give teams like that a goal start before you start playing.
“It is never nice to lose but I think the manner of the defeat, especially our performance in the first half, has left us very disappointed.
“There was an improvement in the second half and we’ve almost nicked something from the game that we probably didn’t deserve.
“We’ve paid the price for not being at it in the first half.”
Jackson could have rescued an unlikely point after the Addicks were awarded a free-kick 20 yards from Camp’s goal but the skipper’s strike went just over the bar.
“I just didn’t catch it quite as well as I would have liked, I got a bit too much on it,” he said.
“It was a decent chance so I’m a bit disappointed with it.”
One positive for the Addicks was the impact made by Fuller following his introduction for Bradley Wright-Phillips with 10 minutes remaining.
Jackson added: “He is going to be a key player for us.
“He is a handful for any defence like you saw in his little cameo today, he came on, caused problems and scored a goal.
“We were knocking on the door at the end. It is a strange game football, we might have nicked a point from the game that we really didn’t deserve.”
Jackson also unconvincingly pleaded his innocence after he and keeper Ben Hamer started a deadline day Twitter rumour Emile Heskey had joined Charlton and was on the coach to Nottingham with the rest of the squad.
“It must have been his doppelganger then because I thought I saw him there,” he joked.
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