Charlton 2 Manchester City 2

ALAN Curbishley was in no mood for excuses after watching his lacklustre Charlton side claim a lucky point in stoppage time against Manchester City at The Valley on Saturday.

If the Addicks are to play a serious role in disputing this season’s UEFA Cup places, they will treasure the memory of defender Chris Perry’s answer to their desperate prayers.

But it failed to mask a below-par performance that left the Charlton manager, by his own admission, "shocked".

He said: "Am I relieved? I’m relieved that at some stage during the 90 minutes we managed to pass the ball to one another. The first-half was abysmal and left me totally shocked.

"Not one of our players rolled up their sleeves and attempted to sort it out because we were making Manchester City look like Brazil with all their flicks and turns.

"How we came in at half time 2-1 down I don’t know. The one thing this club prides itself on is desire and we needed a gallon of it from every player out there because it was clearly lacking.

"The only crumb of comfort I can take is that we’re eighth from top, though I feel flat. The fans got behind us in the second-half when they could have turned, and it was they who brought us back into the game."

So disappointed was Curbishley with the level of display that he has hinted at changes for the Addicks' next match at Portsmouth.

"I’ve got to take a serious look at what happened out there in the first-half because some of the players looked as though they couldn’t pick their legs up and some looked as though they didn’t want to pick their legs up," he said.

"I won’t use the international break as an excuse because Hermann Hreidarsson was the only one who had two games and came back late. Manchester City’s Claudio Reyna flew halfway around the world from Mexico City and he destroyed us.

"So if any of our players are lucky enough to be playing at Portsmouth next Saturday, then they had better grab it because if I could, I would have made eight or nine changes at half-time."

Charlton: Kiely, Young, Perry, Fish (Fortune 46), Hreidarsson (Lisbie 75), Holland, Murphy, Konchesky, Johansson (Jeffers 46), Thomas, Bartlett. Subs Not Used: Andersen, Hughes.

Attendance: 26,436.