By Charlie Henderson

Holland has featured in five league games for Charlton this season

Midfielder Matt Holland has warned his Charlton team-mates that their season must now start in earnest.

The Premiership's bottom club need a quick revival if they are to avoid a relegation battle - something Holland experienced with former club Ipswich.

"The key is to get points early and not play catch-up," Holland told BBC Sport.

"It's a big period for us after a tough start and hopefully we can push on, get some points on the board and start pushing up the Premiership table."

Following the international break that big push starts against Fulham on Monday - and it is all a far cry from this time last season when Charlton shared the points at home against the Cottagers and were second in the table.

The fluctuation in fortunes is not the only change in SE7.

Iain Dowie has come in as manager at The Valley following Alan Curbishley's 15 years at the helm and he has overhauled the playing personnel.

He wanted more "athleticism" and "creativity" in his squad and, while defending the signings as "good acquisitions", an honest and forthright admittance of making mistakes is refreshing in this day and age of footballing spin and cliches.

"I'm happy to take the blame for the start of the season because I am the manager," Dowie has said.

"We have had patches showing what we are capable of - and that has not been done enough.

It's easy to make excuses - but we have had a few injuries Matt Holland

"Now everyone should be embracing the new ideas and they all know what I am about, what we are trying to achieve."

Holland echoes Dowie's call for the club to "kick on" and, despite having only limited chances under the new boss, he likes what he sees.

"Iain Dowie has made a good impression," said the 32-year-old, who is in his third season at the club.

"He has good ideas, is bright and enthusiastic and a good coach. I think he'll get it right.

"There have been quite a few new arrivals and it always takes time for them to settle but they have done well and have joined in with team spirit, which is great.

"Amdy Faye's done very well since he came in, playing both centre-half and in central midfield.

"And Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's a larger-than-life character and his pedigree is there for everyone to see.

"With Darren Bent carrying on from last season we will score goals, so we have just got to start being a bit more mean defensively."

CHARLTON CASUALTY LIST Andy Reid returned from injury for the last match against Arsenal and since then there has been more positive news from the club's treatment room: Returning: Souleymane Diawara (hamstring), Omar Pouso (hamstring) & Jerome Thomas (foot) Still out: Cory Gibbs (knee), Gonzalo Sorondo (back) & Djimi Traore (leg) Out: Kevin Lisbie (shoulder)

That is sometimes easier said than done.

Injuries have blighted the early stages of Charlton's campaign and the fixture list has also been unkind.

Seven games in and six have been against teams on a hot streak of form in the top eight of the table.

But of the next seven matches, five are against sides in the bottom half, hence Holland's calm confidence in Charlton's fortunes being on the up sooner rather than later.

"It's easy to make excuses but we have had a few injuries and people on the sidelines with various things," added Holland.

"Injuries have taken a toll but the international break has helped there and hopefully it's just a case of getting everyone fit.

"And we have a month or two of fixtures where we are playing teams in the bottom half of the table and you would hope we could take points off them.

"When I was at Ipswich we were bottom of the league at Christmas and it was always going to be hard from then.

"We actually then won seven out of eight games but in a tough run-in we couldn't just do enough.

"We gave ourselves too much to do."