CHARLTON manager Alan Pardew turned on his players for the first time this season with a blunt appraisal of their performance in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Colchester.

Though the point lifted the Addicks into fifth place in the Championship, he levelled outspoken criticism at his players after they retrieved a 2-0 deficit for the second time this season to grab a point against opponents who had been reduced to 10-men.

He said: "I told the players the performance was not good enough for this club and it was not good enough for where we are at the minute.

"Some our our players were too sloppy. I certainly wasn’t pleased because we’re a lot better than that.

"Again we’ve had to dig deep to take something from the game."