Charlton Athletic's impressive Carabao Cup run was ended at the quarter-final stage last night, after being on the end of a 3-0 scoreline at the hands of Manchester United. 

The Red Devils took the lead with 21 minutes gone, after a superb curling strike from Antony out on the right. 

A brace from Marcus Rashford in the closing stages put an end to any hope of a comeback for the Addicks, who left Old Trafford with their heads held high, after being the last remaining EFL side to reach the quarter-final stage. 

  • "I thought it was harsh on us" 

Charlton boss Dean Holden spoke to the media after the game, and despite the scoreline was proud of his players at Old Trafford:

"You could see we were disappointed with the result in the end because I thought we deserved more than that, if we're being fair. The players were disappointed, which is a good sign."

 

“The supporters knew there was a performance in there. All the promises that they would run through brick walls and I thought we did that tonight."

The Addicks took almost 9,000 supporters to Old Trafford, and whilst it wasn't the fairytale ending to the evening, the travelling Charlton fans can come away with confidence for the rest of the season:

"Premier League teams come here and have to ride their luck. After that we grew into the game, I thought we showed real belief in the way that we passed the ball, we had so many moments to counterattack and we just couldn't find that pass or the final moment."

Charlton held United to just a 1-0 advantage until the 90th minute, and Holden believes his Addicks side were the better team for a good amount of the second half:

“We come out second half full of belief. We were the better team, I think it's fair to say for 15 minutes. We've had Fraser's chance, he puts over the bar and I turned around and Erik ten Hag is bringing on Casemiro, Eriksen and Rashford and obviously for a reason because he could see that we had a bit of control at that point."

 

Rashford would go on to bag a hattrick after coming on, with Casemiro getting the assist for his second:

“I thought it was harsh on us at 3-0, to be honest. I couldn’t have been prouder of the performance and you can see the connection, we're building it every day."

“The biggest thing is that we've shown ourselves as a football club and what we're all about, arguably we could have got a bit closer in the game with some of the chances.”

Whilst Holden's side have had an incredible run in the Carabao Cup, the former Premier League side need to focus on continuing a positive run of form in their last two games. 

The Addicks sit 12th in League One, nine points off the play-off spots in the third tier.

Victory against Portsmouth at Fratton Park was followed by all three points against Lincoln City.

 

However, prior to those two games, the Addicks hadn't won a game (in 90 minutes) since the start of November.

Nevertheless, since Dean Holden took charge just weeks ago, results have improved for Charlton, with seven points from 12 games in League One, something which Holden hopes will continue into their game against Barnsley on Saturday: 

"We have to find a performance on Saturday that we've done in the previous two league games to really kick start our season."

“We've got ourselves into a decent position now up and around that mid table and we know we need to get the hammer down and keep pushing.”

Charlton face Barnsley on January 14, 15:00 GMT, with the Addicks looking for all three points against a promotion-chasing side.