Curbishley faces up to home truths

Charlton manager Alan Curbishley is desperate to give something back to his club's fans by winning more games at The Valley.

His team have only won four League games at home all season and have lost six times, including yesterday's defeat by Manchester United, yet attendances have been increasing.

Capacity at The Valley has gone up from 20,000 at the start of the campaign to more than 26,000 and the ground is sold out for most fixtures.

Curbishley said: "We have not given our fans anything to cheer about for some time.

"We can handle losing to United, Liverpool and Leeds but we have let them down otherwise and we need to finish the season off with some wins at home so they feel we are moving on. Their support has been brilliant but we have lost more games at The Valley than we did in the Premiership last time and they are going home without anything to cheer about."

Charlton's home form last season was principally responsible for their ninthplace finish. They won 11 games on their own patch in the Premiership and lost just three.

This time around their away form has helped them to stay around the middle of the table. Curbishley expects that to continue and to see a marked improvement in their remaining home games against Chelsea, Bolton, Arsenal, Southampton and Sunderland.

He added: "There are two main things that I have been disappointed with so far this season. One has been the injuries which we just have to put up with and the other has been our home form, which we need to put right."