Accrington manager John Coleman jumped to the defence of under-fire Charlton boss Nigel Adkins after his side took all three points at The Valley in a thrilling 3-2 victory.

Harry Pell scored twice and Ethan Hamilton grabbed the third as Accrington held on for the win despite a late Charlton rally thanks to Jayden Stockley’s strike.

The defeat means Charlton have collected just nine points from 13 Sky Bet League One games and the Addicks supporters made their displeasure clear throughout the night, baying for Adkins’ dismissal.

“I feel for Nigel,” Coleman said. “He’s one of the good guys and he’s come under criticism from the get-go tonight.

“He’s assembled a good set of players and the players need to step up to the mark. It’s not always the manager’s fault.

“You see it in the way they pinned us for periods in the second half – they weren’t throwing the towel in, that’s for sure.

“I’m a manager, so I’m biased obviously, but I don’t think he deserves the criticism he’s got.”

Accrington had won just one of their away League One fixtures prior to Tuesday’s trip to SE7, but facing the out-of-form Addicks proved the perfect tonic.

“I’m delighted to win,” Coleman continued. “Obviously, we haven’t been performing well away from home. I thought it was a great game – it could have been 5-5.

“Charlton came out in the second half, pinned us in, we score two goals against the run of play and then you think that’s it, game over.

“They threw everything at us the last five minutes but we held out.”

For Charlton, it was yet another defeat in a season which is threatening to turn into a relegation battle rather than a promotion chase, with the south-Londoners currently sitting four points adrift of safety.

“I totally understand the frustrations of all supporters, I’m very frustrated myself,” Adkins said.

“But I’m going to stand here and support the players, support the team, and I’m going to support everybody as best I can.

“You don’t see me shying away – it’s not nice, we all want to be liked and when you’re not it’s not nice.

“I’ve got thick skin and I’m desperate to do well at this football club. We’ve got good people here, everyone’s working hard but at the moment things are going against us.

“You find out about one, yourself, and two, the people you’re surrounded with. I can see a group of players with a desire to keep working hard for each other.

“We’ve just got to do what we can to win the next game. That’s the way we’ve been viewing it all the way through.”