A lot of the criticism of Parky is very harsh. At the time he was with us, his managerial position was probably one of the most stressful in the whole football league - constantly having to sell players; no money being available to sign decent ones; the clubs highest earners on the treatment bench; fans who wouldn't accept him as manager; fans who feel they have a divine right to be in the Premier League let alone The Championsip; demoralised squad etc etc etc
The season he was sacked, our squad was probably one of the worst in Charlton history (McCormack, Francis, Doherty, Racon et al). He had no money so had to make do with freebies and loanees through his tenure, some of whom were very good acquisitions (Burton, Richardson, Dailly in his first season, Reid).
Looking at our squad in the second League One season, its no miracle that they were in the play-off places. He made very very average/poor players look okay, and salvaged a lot of wins.