Valley of Humiliation

I remember our first game in the Premier League when we beat Southampton 5-1, although their keeper was sent off.   I was not able to follow yesterday's game as I was a panelist at the University of Warwick's 60th anniversary celebrations, but just as we were able to start, a former colleague whispered 'Your lot are 1-5 down at half time.'

At first I thought it was a wind up given that even if we don't score many goals, we don't concede many.  Charlton are now in the bottom half of the table in 13th place.

Ryan Manning headed home the opener before Adam Armstrong and Caspar Jander made it 3-0 inside 20 minutes.  Finn Azaz then scored twice before the break, although Charlton managed to get one back just before half-time as Lloyd Jones headed home from a corner.

Southampton opened the scoring in the 14th minute as Manning crashed into the box and nodded the ball into the top corner of the net after a cross from the right.

Two minutes later, Armstrong doubled the lead, finding himself in space and seeing a shot blocked before following up with a lashed effort, high into the net from an angle on the left.

Saints' third goal was a fine footballing move as Gavin Bazunu started with the ball almost on his own goal line before then starting a sequence that saw Eckert's side work the ball beautifully up the pitch.

As they moved towards the halfway line, Armstrong swivelled in possession before playing Jander clean through on goal and he - after a fair dash - provided a composed, low finish with his right foot.

Azaz then made it four after Armstrong found his piercing run into the box and the summer signing took the ball around Charlton keeper Thomas Kaminski before slotting it home.

The Republic of Ireland international then scored a fifth for his side two minutes before half-time. Tom Fellows made a run down the right and then sent a powerful cross across the face of goal, with Azaz on hand to poke it home at the back post.

Just before the break, Charlton managed to get a goal back as Jones rose highest to head the ball home from a Sonny Carey corner.

Saints appeared to take their foot off the pedal in the second half and almost played themselves into trouble at times but managed to escape without conceding again.

This was just Charlton's second home loss of the season, their only other league defeat at The Valley coming against Leicester in August.

Nathan Jones told BBC Radio London:

"Give credit to them, for 20 minutes they were as good a side as we have seen at this level [but] could we have been a bit more aggressive? We did not do the things we normally do and that is basically what has cost us.

"We do not defend the box well enough for the first goal, we allow certain things to happen for the second which kind of kills it, and then they go up and level and make it three and four very quickly.

"We showed a lot of character in the second half, we tweaked it defensively – we were probably a little more reserved than we normally are. Credit to Southampton they were much better than us but that is a learning curve for us.

"We are stretched. We have four fit defenders and one could not play today because it is against his club; wingers in wing-back positions, so it's tough.  We did not quite get things right, we gave them too much respect."

"We were deep and weren't aggressive in winning that first ball that we normally do and then they had runners and quality and real technique to go and hurt us and we looked open, which is not something we normally do."