One of my closest friends was celebrating at the final whistle last Saturday – but unfortunately, it wasn’t anyone in the Charlton line-up.

Being beaten 4-0 at home by Brighton was not a good result. The reaction by the fans at the end was understandable because they want to see us challenging for promotion.

I believe, as do the rest of the team, that we will be challenging at the right end of the table when the season gets to May. After all, we’re only three points off the play-offs.

But we have to play better than we did against Brighton.

The person I referred to at the start of this column is Inigo Calderon, who I played with at Alicante. We speak after every game and have a good relationship.

He looks forward to coming to The Valley. He’s only scored two goals for Brighton and they’ve both been against us at home!

I said before the game that I thought it would be an exciting match. I suppose it was but only if you were one of the Brighton fans.

We have to take into account that they were the league leaders and apparently they’ve played better than their recent 1-0 and 2-1 wins might have suggested.

But we can’t be beaten 4-0 at home and remain serious about gaining promotion. We need to improve and that has to start with improving our away form against Carlisle United on Saturday and then making sure we put things right against Sheffield Wednesday at The Valley a week later.

Someone asked me whether it was easier for me on Saturday because I wasn’t in the team but that’s not the case.

We are a team and the result affects us all.

Of course, I want to play but I don’t want my team-mates to lose. It’s frustrating when you’re out of the team but the manager picks the team and I know all I can do is work hard and do well in training and hope I win back my place.

To relax away from football, I play games with my son. He takes up a lot of my time.

In fact, I’m not finding many opportunities to study English these days. It is impossible to find the time when I get home because I have my son to look after. By the time he goes to bed, I want to sleep as well!