Charlton boss Lee Bowyer looked for the positives after his side were held to a 2-2 draw at home to mid-table Plymouth.

The hosts trailed twice at a bitterly cold Valley to Luke Jephcott strikes but battled back on each occasion to level, first through Chris Gunter and then substitute Marcus Maddison.

“We dominated large portions of the game,” said Bowyer. “We moved the ball well, we created chances, but we weren’t ruthless enough in front of goal. We scored two and could have had four or five.

“We gave away two soft goals. We have to be stronger and not give away these silly goals.

“The players are human, and they’ll make mistakes, but they have to take responsibility when they step onto the pitch. I can’t hold their hands.

“I want more, but I see us getting closer to where I know we can be. It’s more fluid now in our play and the chances we’re creating.

“It’s the other side we need to stop. We’re giving away too many soft goals and that’s something we need to work on as a group.

“What we do going forward, we have to be able to do the same defensively. I wouldn’t say it’s lack of effort or fight, because everyone’s putting a shift in.”

The point moved Charlton back into the top six and Bowyer continued: “We haven’t lost in four so we’re not doing that bad. We will get better and we are improving.

“Am I disappointed? Of course, I want to win every game. But I try to look at the positives and there are a lot of things I’m seeing now that I wasn’t five weeks ago.”

This time last season, Plymouth were in League Two and Charlton were in the Championship, so Pilgrims manager Ryan Lowe was happy with the point.

“I’m pleased with the commitment, the attitude and desire,” he said. “We had a little rocky spell where we weren’t winning and weren’t collecting points which is always tough, but they seem to have got their mojo and belief back now.

“You can be disappointed that you haven’t taken three points, but you can’t be too disappointed in coming to The Valley and taking a point because they’re a good team.

“Lee’s done a fantastic job. They’ve got some ex-Premier League players. But we can’t fear that, we have to go and test ourselves against these types of teams. Any points on the road are good points.

“We’ve always had confidence in the group and the players and it’s nice to see it coming to fruition. We feel we’ve had our bad luck and we want to keep climbing the table and see where it takes us.”