Town boss Mick McCarthy praised his side’s ruthlessness at both ends of the field after they defeated Charlton 3-0 at The Valley. Daryl Murphy scored twice and Freddie Sears once as the Blues won their fourth successive game on Addicks’ turf.
"I think the difference between the two sides was that we were ruthless in front our goal.” he said.
"We were actually ruthless in front of our own defending it as well because when they did breach it I thought the back four were great today.
"And we had Gerks who made three magnificent saves. I just said to him, ‘Man of the match and we won 3-0’.”
Charlton manager Karel Fraeye said after the match that he didn’t think the scoreline told the whole story of the game with his side ahead in most of the stats, and McCarthy could see where he was coming from.
"I’ve been there myself, I think we should win games and we haven’t,” he said. "I think they’re a difficult outfit to play against.
"They played a diamond, they played it well. The two young lads, Ademola Lookman and Tareiq Holmes-Dennis, the full-back, I thought they were excellent in the game, as was Jordan Cousins. I thought there were some good performances from them, to be honest with you.
"I’d agree with him, I don’t think it does, but then, as I said, the difference was that we were ruthless.
"We’ve got a goalscorer who hadn’t scored for 13 games and he’s now scored six in three. There lies the difference, we’ve put to bed the chances that we’ve created and we did defend well today, I thought we defended really well.”
McCarthy says it was no surprise that eyebrows were being raised after Murphy’s slow start to the season.
"With good reason. When you score 27 last season and then don’t score for 13 games. He came back late from pre-season, he played in the summer with Ireland.
"There was a different challenge when he got back with Freddie Sears, who had been brilliant, and Brett Pitman, who has been excellent.
"I think Brett Pitman has been a big part of him getting back to form because when I put him in I thought he would put a bit of weight off him and maybe he’d get on a couple of flick-ons and the fact that Brett holds it up and sticks it.
"We’ve played slightly different and Murph’s benefited from all those things. What he has also benefited from is our belief in him, our consistency and just keeping him going.”
The Town boss also had praise for Sears: "Their shape, the diamond, if you go chasing it can be difficult to play against and Freddie was just his usual diligent self, staying with the full-back because Holmes-Dennis at left-back is a handful, a good player, I like him. Freddie stuck with him, he just tracked him back.
"And then he caused them all sorts of problems when he was chasing balls down the other end.
"He’s been selfless, he’s been a proper pro. I’m more relieved than he is that he scored his goal because I keep saying ‘Well done Freddie, you’re brilliant, I love what you’re doing’, but he actually wants to score and I’m glad he did. It was a deflection, I think, but it was down to him, it was going in the net.”
McCarthy confirmed that Christophe Berra lost a tooth when caught by a Simon Makienok arm in the second half: "I’ve just heard him in the dressing room on about it, so I think he did. It won’t hurt his looks, it’s all right.”
The Town manager hopes to have Kevin Bru and Larsen Touré available again next week: "Kevin had a tight hamstring and Larsen had a sore groin yesterday. Neither of them were any good today but hopefully will be all right for next week.”
Charlton manager Fraeye felt his side’s performance deserved better and believed there was a foul in the lengthy goalmouth scramble which led to Murphy’s opening goal.
"We started the game today to get three points, I think that was very clear,” he said. "We started very aggressively and tried to get the goal.
"I think today all the statistics are in our favour, except one, and it’s unbelievable that we didn’t score and that they scored three in the game.
"The first goal was very important and I think that the first goal should never have been allowed because there was a clear foul, and then it’s very difficult to defend and I think that was decisive for the game.
"For the second goal and the third goal we don’t look too good ourselves and it was one of those games where things were against us. First, the injury of Johnnie Jackson, who really was the heart of the team last week and losing him was a blow, although I think the team reacted very well.
"And the first goal and then the timing of the second goal was very bad. You can’t get a worse time than just before entering the dressing room.
"And the third goal, there’s no good time for the opposition to get a third goal but I think in the second half we tried to put on some pressure and make some chances but once they got the third it was very, very hard to get a result.”