Curbishley can't explain Charlton's collapse

Alan Curbishley is refusing to give up hope of Charlton qualifying for Europe despite their traditional end-of-season blues continuing.

Charlton have won only one of their last nine games following Saturday's 4-2 defeat at Portsmouth.

First half set-piece goals from Jonathan Fortune and Danny Murphy helped Charlton claw back an early 2-0 deficit before Portsmouth wrapped up a late victory in Alain Perrin's first game in charge.

Curbishley is trying to figure out what happens to his side at this time of the season.

"I have got a lot of thinking to do," he said. "It's not all doom and gloom. Lots of clubs would like to be in our position. It's just disappointing that we get this far and then have a problem.

"Every year we get to this stage and fall away. Five years in a row now we've been in a great position with about 10 games to go, then just faded.

"I don't think we've got any non-triers. They're all having a go but if we don't defend better than that, we haven't got a prayer."