Charlton Athletic 0 v Leyton Orient 1

Well, we did it once again in front of the Sky television cameras. We fell flat on our faces and can have few complaints. For the peanuts you get from Sky for League One games (£30,000), we might be better off telling them to poke it next time. The added numbers on the gate would recoup most of the broadcast fee and we don't need advertisements for staying at home when Charlton play.

It was a derby match and we haven't been playing particularly well at home of late, so my prediction of an easy 3-0 win looks hopelessly optimistic now. If I am honest, this result has probably been coming for a couple of months now, especially based on our uninspiring home performances.

I'm sure more of you saw the match on television than were present this evening (barely 15,000 home fans) , so I am not going to attempt to recount what you saw. I don't know what the Sky pundits thought of it but they usually talk matches up and whilst there was enough from both sides to do that, I thought the game lacked quality even if both sides looked more evenly matched than the league table suggests. When I think about the football Leeds played at Spurs on Saturday, we were light years away from it.

We lost the midfield in the first half and Orient were quick to pressure Jose Semedo whenever he got the ball. As a consequence he was forced into a series of errors and Nicky Bailey had to spend the half covering his midfield partner rather than looking to link the play. The back four did well enough although Grant Basey was skinned on one occasion which could have proven costly.

Orient moved the ball well and quickly when they got possession and they looked decent moving down the flanks, although I thought their end product was poor. Apart from a free header that McGleish saw late, they didn't look like they believed they were capable of scoring during the first half. For us, Mooney and Burton chased long balls and once again played like two lone strikers but it's hard when the central midfield is playing so deep and struggling. Lloyd Sam provided what support they did receive although Shelvey had another wasteful game in my view. It is really expecting too much to win matches playing like this at home. We need to attack with purpose and support the front two, something we rarely threatened during the opening forty-five. We failed to put Orient under any sustained pressure during that period and didn't build any forward momentum. There was an obvious problem with Semedo and a bolder manager may have changed it early on.

Nil-nil at half-time and under-performing but you can always convince yourself we will get going in the second-half, especially when we are attacking the Covered End. We looked sharper for the first few minutes but then former Addick Scott McGleish got on the end of a far post ball and his header beat Elliot. What disappointed me most about the goal was that the fourth or fifth match in succession, Nicky Bailey hit the deck after losing out in a challenge in a desperately schoolboy attempt to sway the referee. Just as in the last game, he collapsed holding his face this evening as if an eye had been gouged out, only to recover completely once it was clear the ref was having none of it. He's too good a player to cheat like this and he risks getting a bad reputation for it. He does more than enough for the side for the odd honest mistake to be perfectly acceptable and Phil Parkinson should make him cut it out.

The goal gave the O's a lift and the incentive to stick at it. They weathered the Charlton response and survived the initial lift we gained from our substitutions, and might even have added to their lead. I thought it very telling that Semedo was first to go off, even if I would have taken Shelvey off at that stage.

Wagstaff, McKenzie and Dickson all made a strong and lasting impact against Hartlepool after coming on but it only lasted for ten minutes at most this evening. Dickson was caught offside repeatedly which did nothing to help our momentum and Wagstaff was trying to do everything at top speed when we needed more composure. Dickson badly needs a goal as I sense his legions of well-wishers are beginning to see what an increasing number of managers have found out for themselves - that he looks like a flash-in-the-pan.

We can perhaps count ourselves unfortunate not to have managed an equaliser from the openings we did create but a victory would have been harsh on the O's. Our League One rivals will have been laughing throughout the second half and the media will be content to continue their focus on the Leeds v Norwich title battle, safe in the knowledge that Charlton can't hack it. Perversely, having missed the chance to draw level with our main rivals this evening, they both get the opportunity to increase the gap to six points tomorrow night if they win their respective away games.

Phil Parkinson has some work to do to get his side motivated for Saturday and focused again to begin another run of unbeaten games that we will need if we are to stay in the hunt. In addition to the three points, we are in desperate need of a cohesive and sustained attacking performance. We are at least playing a side we beat 4-0 at their ground earlier in the season but a solid 2-0 win is probably what we would all settle for this evening.