Pearson: Mistakes Cost Us

The Foxes battled hard to get back into it after going behind, and looked the more likely to go on and win the game at 1-1, but with plenty of points still to play for this season, Pearson stressed the importance of not getting carried away.

“This same group of players have played some really good football [recently],” said Pearson after the match.

“The danger is that you get too far ahead of yourself by looking at what happens elsewhere. We’ve just lost two league games on the spin, and didn’t play particularly well tonight but I don’t think we deserved to lose the game.

“I know the second goal was a good strike, but we’ve not dealt with a situation that I’d expect us to have snuffed out and we’ve stood off a player who has been able to hit a speculative shot.

“Tonight we’ve made mistakes that have cost us dearly and in the crucial period where we scored the equaliser, we’ve not capitalised on that.

“Charlton did well tonight, but I look at my own team’s performance, and I think we lacked the fluidity that we’ve had for the vast majority of the season.

“Ultimately we didn’t show enough quality, both in terms of delivery from set plays and in open play when we got into good positions, we didn’t really find the right ball to put them under enough pressure.

“It’s a poor result and it’s not one of our better performances.”

Despite the defeat, Wood was able to mark his return to the side with a goal – his eighth in seven games, and Pearson was full of praise for his young striker despite a difficult evening against Powell’s tough to break down Addicks.

He added: “I think his record speaks for itself. He’s had two or three weeks out, and he was still able to have an impact tonight.

“Charlton limited the opportunities for our strikers by making it difficult, especially in the first half, and they spent a lot of time playing out wide trying to create space, but he took his goal exceptionally well and could have scored another one late on as well.

“It’s important to remember that he is a young lad, he’s not exactly late 20s with hundreds of appearances.

“He’s learning the game, he’s had a great impact and he’s a great lad to work with. He’ll continue to score goals, there’s no doubt about that.”