Russell Slade was less than impressed with his side's second half humiliation at The Valley.
Cardiff were a goal up and playing against 10 men but took a second half battering from the home side before conceding an 88th minute goal for the match to end all square.
"We had total control for 35 minutes when we bossed the game," said Slade. We were disappointed with the second half as we performed so differently. We will have to look at the mental and physical side of our game.
"I thought our defending was poor for much of the second half. They could have had more goals and (David) Marshall was excellent in goal. He had to be, otherwise we could have quite easily lost this game today."
Slade still has his eyes on the play offs but after no wins in the last four games admits his team needs to be more consistent.
"That was the aim and it still is the aim," he said. "I believe it is a realistic target for us as long as we can start to show some consistency in the New Year."
Meanwhile Charlton boss Bob Peeters was the happier manager. His only regret was that Charlton didn't win the game.
"I think we should have won it, to be honest," said Peeters. "They had one throw-in, scored a goal, then we were down to 10 men after 32 minutes, so you know it's going to be difficult.
"For the second half, we said 'we're going to start the first five, 10 minutes the same way, then take some risks'.
"We put Oguchi [Onyewu] on to have some physicality at the back, because they were aiming for throw-ins and set-pieces. We went three at the back and put a striker on.
"In the second half we battered them. If Igor scores late, in the last second, the roof would have come off at The Valley because the fans were loving every minute of the second half, especially with 10 men. I'm very pleased with the way my players responded.
"This is the best I've seen us play, especially with 10 men. Everything was in it. A lot of determination - we scored a cracking goal, we hit the post twice. We had enough chances to win the game.
"Only the result was unfair I think, but for the rest I'm proud of my team today."