King Disappointed After Charlton Reverse

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King Disappointed After Charlton Reverse

Andy King felt we had a mountain to climb after Leicester City went down to 10 men just 15 minutes into Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Charlton Athletic.

2026-02-01T09:00+00:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

01 Feb, 2026

King Disappointed After Charlton Reverse

Andy King felt we had a mountain to climb after Leicester City went down to 10 men just 15 minutes into Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Charlton Athletic.

Sam Stevens

2026-02-01T09:00+00:00

King Disappointed After Charlton Reverse

Andy King felt we had a mountain to climb after Leicester City went down to 10 men just 15 minutes into Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Charlton Athletic.

Sam Stevens

2026-02-01T09:00+00:00

King Disappointed After Charlton Reverse

Andy King felt we had a mountain to climb after Leicester City went down to 10 men just 15 minutes into Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Charlton Athletic.

Sam Stevens

2026-02-01T09:00+00:00

King Disappointed After Charlton Reverse

Andy King felt we had a mountain to climb after Leicester City went down to 10 men just 15 minutes into Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Charlton Athletic.

Sam Stevens

2026-02-01T09:00+00:00

Andy King reacts to our 2-0 loss to Charlton Athletic at King Power Stadium
Sonny Carey and Lyndon Dykes goals were the difference after Caleb Okoli’s red card
King highlighted the second-half performance and the youth players in action as positives from a frustrating day

The First Team Coach’s first game overseeing the Foxes ended in disappointment as first-half goals from Sonny Carey and Lyndon Dykes gave the visiting Addicks all three Sky Bet Championship points at King Power Stadium.

Jordan Ayew also hit the post from the penalty spot during the second-half for Leicester. Keen to highlight the youthful nature of the matchday squad, and the manner in which City prevented more goals after the break, King was nevertheless frustrated at full-time.

“It’s always difficult,” he said, referencing Caleb Okoli’s 15th-minute dismissal. “You do all this work to try and change a couple of small bits and then it almost gets blown out the water after 15 minutes.

“Then you’re always going to be chasing. It’s a long time to be defending with 10 ultimately. I’m disappointed because we’d prepped really well and I felt like it was a game we could win, but after 15 minutes, it’s difficult.

“I actually thought the lads, for the majority of the game, from that moment, were very, very good. We brought on Bade Aluko and I thought he was brilliant, but he’s ultimately a right-back learning the job at centre-half next to another 21-year-old.

“We’ve already got Louis Page on the pitch and then we lose a senior midfielder (Hamza Choudhury). I thought Winsky (Harry Winks) was outstanding, I thought he showed his class. There’s some positives, especially in the second half, but I’m disappointed with the result, there’s no getting away from that.

“In the second half, I put it to those lads that it can go one of two ways. We either go under and we sink and we get beat three, four or five, and we all feel sorry for ourselves – like maybe we have done previously – or we can actually come out, try and get back into the game, show a bit of fight, show a bit of what we’re about.

“I was really happy with the response to that. I felt they did show that and, again, in that key moment when the penalty went against us, I felt like it had that gone the other way, we’d have really built some momentum and maybe gone on and got a second. But after that, it was difficult.”

Olabade Aluko came off the bench to provide defensive cover after Okoli’s red card, while Page and Ben Nelson were starters, with Jeremy Monga also coming on late on. Seeing Academy graduates on the pitch was pleasing for King, who felt they stood up to the challenge admirably.

“Bade Aluko, I’ve already mentioned,” he said. “[There was] Louis, Jez and people forget that Ben Nelson’s also only 21, but they need help around them. You can’t just throw [them] in.

“We finished the game with 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 [year-olds]. They need help. We’re short at the moment. I think there’s no getting away from that. I’m really pleased with them.

“My background in football and the way I believe in football, I’ll always use young players if I think they’re ready. I think, in the case of the people you saw today, I think they’re ready. Will they make mistakes? Potentially, but I also think they’ll give you a lot as well. I was pleased with their performances.”

Hamza Choudhury also had to leave the pitch early on with injury, and King provided an update post-match: “It’s not great, I don’t think. I’ve had a couple of people say to me that, in terms of first games, it had everything you don’t want.

“We had a red card after 15 minutes, another senior midfielder gets injured when you’ve already got midfielders injured, and then we have the missed penalty as well. He’ll need a scan, it’s his knee, but I don’t think it’s going to be a quick turnaround.”

It’s Birmingham City next for the Foxes, with more work needed on the training pitches: “What I was told last week was to prep for this game and then to see how it goes. There was a lot of stuff we can take from this game.

“There’s still a lot of stuff we can improve, of course, but it’ll be good to get back on the training pitch and put right some of the wrongs which were going on before.”

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