Dean Holden: Charlton deserved narrow opening victory over Leyton Orient
Posted Sunday, August 06, 2023 by PA
Charlton manager Dean Holden felt his side deserved their 1-0 opening-day League One victory over Leyton Orient.
The game at the rainy Valley was settled by a first-half strike from captain George Dobson.
Holden was pleased his outfit put in a performance in front of a bumper home crowd and believed his side could have scored more.
He said “There’s a lot of expectation of supporters turning up with a lot of optimism. It’s important they see a team like today.
“We started really well, we started with intent, we ran all over Leyton Orient – they’re a team who have obviously had a lot of success winning the League Two title last year, playing a certain style.
“They wanted to play on their terms at times, so we needed to get on top of them and force mistakes, which we did.
“We should have won more comfortably, but we looked more solid defensively which was a bit of a concern last week in the pre-season (game) against Aberdeen.
“We had a lot of work to do this week, but credit to the players for taking that on board.”
Alfie May showed excellent footwork in the area to almost net his first Charlton game after four minutes, but Sol Brynn matched his effort.
At the other end, Ashley Maynard-Brewer had to turn away a Theo Archibald effort before the half-hour mark.
The hosts broke the deadlock a minute before first-half injury time. Corey Blackett-Taylor was given too much space down the left by Rob Hunt and his low cross found the foot of Dobson.
The visitors saw Tom James have his shot after 57 minutes deflected over the crossbar as they looked for a breakthough.
Substitute Panutche Camara missed a sitter in injury time to double the Charlton lead, but the hosts held on for victory.
Leyton Orient saw defeat in their first third-tier match since 2015 and were backed by 3,153 visiting supporters.
Head coach Richie Wellens believed an error for the goal proved the difference.
He said: “In terms of performance, we got it wrong just once. We had a lapse in the 44th minute when we gave the ball away, and then we didn’t get enough bodies in to cover.
“In the second half we dominated them and had so many counter-attacks, but we just took the extra touch rather than get our shots off.
“That’s what they did well, they got their shots off and made our goalkeeper work.
“We lost the game but it was a good day for us as a whole and we’ll take a lot of confidence from it.
“The biggest compliment I can take is the reaction of their manager at the final whistle – he was relieved.”
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