New Charlton boss Dean Holden admits Peterborough draw ‘a fair result’

Posted Tuesday, December 27, 2022 by PA

New Charlton boss Dean Holden admitted his side deserved no more than a point after his managerial reign started with a 1-1 home draw against Peterborough.

The Addicks are now winless in League One for more than two months, their last success coming at Shrewsbury on October 22.
But the south Londoners had two big chances against Posh to build on a 1-0 lead handed them by Miles Leaburn’s 49th-minute header.

Sean Clare raced through on goal but saw his effort come back off the left upright four minutes after Leaburn claimed his sixth goal of the season from Daniel Kanu’s left-wing cross.

Leaburn also set up Crystal Palace loanee Jesurun Rak-Sakyi in the 77th minute but the attacker’s first-time attempt failed to even test Posh keeper Will Blackmore.

Peterborough’s leveller in the 65th minute went down as own goal with Jonson Clarke-Harris’ back-post header from Joe Ward’s deep corner coming off Lucas Ness to beat Ashley Maynard-Brewer.

The visitors also hit the bar twice in the second period with Kelland Watts and Kwame Poku both going close.

“We score a great goal through Miles – it’s a brilliant ball from Daniel,” said Holden, who handed teenage striker Kanu his league debut. “Daniel and Miles want to run in behind, I’d hate to play against the two of them.

“First half we didn’t really see the benefit of the two of them together but second half they linked up well and played a little bit closer together.

“Miles’ movement is brilliant – he goes late, rocks the defender and gets across the front of him.

“To concede from the set-piece is really disappointing. Prior to that we’ve had the chance for Sean Clare, he’s run the length of the pitch and done everything but score. It was a big chance for Jes Rak-Sakyi late on.

“They’ve hit the bar a couple of times, the first one was maybe a little bit fortuitous, but the second one he struck it well. Ash has made a big save in the first half as well. Overall it’s probably a fair result.

“There is plenty to work on. We’ve got two big away games coming up now and we’ve got to make sure the recovery is good so that we go there [Oxford] in good heart on Thursday night.”

Peterborough are also out of form, with Monday’s result halted a run of four straight losses in the league.

Posh manager Grant McCann said: “If we’d have won it then we’d have deserved to win it, based on the first half. It’s a point away from home and it stops the rot. We’ve got two home games coming up and it feels like we haven’t been there in ages.

“Without sounding arrogant the two chances we have given them from our undoing. One is from our own corner, they broke from their half. We have to look back and understand why. The second one is a poor clearance from one of our centre-backs who puts Rak-Sakyi in.

“We were excellent first half. I don’t think we gave them a real opportunity to get at us. The only thing missing from us was the last bit, the killer edge or the last pass sometimes.

“We’re a young group. It’s very easy for me to point at the experienced players and say about managing the game better and playing over presses – to stop playing into the press. For 10 or 15 minutes it was our undoing that we kept doing that.”