Charlton’s performance on Tuesday night was arguably their worst since that fateful League Cup quarter-final defeat by Wycombe back in 2006.

That result effectively ended Les Reed’s brief tenure at the helm.

There was a torrent of abuse at the end of the game on Tuesday. That morning’s issue of the South London Press carried a story with quotes from Katrien Meire, that amounted to a vote of confidence for head coach, Guy Luzon. By 10.00pm the dynamic had changed completely. Some even doubted that Luzon would be around for Saturday’s game with Brentford.

The Addicks have now gone nine games without a win, and the last two games against Reading and Preston have been particularly difficult for the fans to accept.

At Reading, Luzon’s tactic was to stifle the game and hope to nick a goal late on. Tuesday’s disappointing performance was magnified by the fact that Preston were in the relegation zone, had not won since August, and had scored just three goals on their travels all season.

Much has been made of the injury situation at The Valley, but Charlton are not alone in being without a number of players. Reading were missing five first team regulars on Saturday and Preston were also shorn of a number of players.

First choice strike duo, Jermain Beckford and Joe Garner, were absent, as was keeper Chris Kirkland and a number of defenders.

It was the manner of the defeat, as much as the score line, that was difficult to take. In both games Luzon seemed to make errors.

Playing for a draw at Reading would have sent out the wrong message to the players, they may have interpreted it as the head coach not believing in them.

Tuesday’s midfield was horribly unbalanced and ineffective. The second choice left-back was deployed on the right wing, an out-of-form midfielder played, while talismanic skipper, Johnnie Jackson, kicked his heels on the bench, and Tareiq Holmes-Dennis was pushed up into midfield for his first senior start.

In his programme notes on Tuesday, Luzon refused to blame injuries for the club’s plight. He said:

“It is true that we have had many injuries to key players already this season, but I am not someone who would ever use that as an excuse. We should have the quality to bring home the result and we have shown in the early part of the season that we are good enough to beat anybody in this league.”

By Thursday, Luzon’s stance had changed somewhat. He had this to say about the injury situation at his Thursday press conference:

“The last two months we have had crazy situations, a crisis with injuries. It is unbelievable what has happened.

“We showed earlier in the season that we were capable of playing well and getting results. Now that we are starting to get players back, I am confident that we can return to this.”

It is worth remembering that of the team that started against Queens Park Rangers on the opening day of the season, only Ahmed Kashi and Simon Makienok were not available for selection at the Madejski.

Luzon is under huge pressure now, he desperately needs to take the three points from the Brentford game, and he spelled out his frustration at the press conference:

“All of us are not happy with our situation that we are in. Myself and the players, we know in recent games that we have not even showed 50 per cent of our quality. At the start of the season we showed more but in the last games we have not.

“We are aware of it, we are not happy or satisfied. We are sad like the fans and everyone around the club but, despite this situation, we are fully confident that we have the quality in the squad and that we have what we need to do, which is to bring results. We are going to do that.”

The head coach will have more options at his disposal for the visit of the Bees, as he explained:

“At this point, we are more positive as, after two months, some of them will be able to come back into the squad and the eleven on Saturday.

“Johnnie Jackson will be ready (for Saturday), Simon Makienok will be back in, Moussa, Henderson, Reza are all back to be involved.”

Whether that was a hint that some of them will start remains to be seen, but all five of them were on the bench on Tuesday.

Johann Berg Gudmundsson is expected to recover from his dead leg in time to play, while the yellow card that Alou Diarra picked up on Tuesday, took him to five for the season and rules him out of this match. Patrick Bauer will return after missing the Preston match through suspension.

The Addicks could look something like this:

Henderson; Solly, Bauer, Sarr, Fox; Gudmundsson, Cousins, Jackson, Moussa; Makienok, Watt.

Subs: Pope, Holmes-Dennis, Ba, Bergdich, McAleny, Ahearne-Grant, Ghoochannejhad.

Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire will be the man in the middle.

Lee Carsley took charge at Griffin Park at the end of last month, following the sacking of Marinus Dijkhuizen.

The Bees, surprisingly, won at Wolverhampton on Wednesday, so will be in buoyant mood. But this is a game Luzon dare not lose.