Michael Appleton is expecting a 'tough task' at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Wednesday when Charlton take on Reading in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy round of 32.
Asked how he is approaching the knockout tie, Appleton said: “As we always will: to try and win it and get into the next round.
"It’s one of those competitions, as I’ve already mentioned, where potentially there’s a thought process early doors that we’re not going to take it too seriously; I’ve never really been in that mindset.
"I just want to try and win every single game we play and tomorrow will be no different. The way I see it is that it’s decent preparation for Saturday as well.”
The Royals progressed to the knockout stages of the competition in style, winning all three group games and scoring 19 goals in the process.
“I would imagine that they’re going to want to respond to Sunday’s result [a 2-1 defeat against Eastleigh in the FA Cup]," he explained. "That would have been a little bit of a kick in the teeth for them because obviously they have had some positive results in the league and they have done ever so well in this competition so far, scoring lots of goals.
“It’s a tough task," he added. "I think I did say when we played them in the league a month or so back, for 60 minutes or so there was nothing between the two teams. Obviously once we went ahead in the game we found it a lot easier, but prior to that it was a difficult game.”
The Head Coach provided an update on Conor McGrandles, who missed Saturday's trip to Gillingham with calf injury.
“It’s not great news - it keeps following us a little bit at the minute, doesn’t it? He pulled out of training on Friday, like I mentioned, and unfortunately the scan has revealed that he’s got a [grade] two b I believe, so we’re talking around four to six weeks. Other than Conor from the weekend, we’re as we were.
“If you look to rotate too much you can almost be too clever," he continued. "It’s going to be important going forward that we try and win every single game we have. At the same time, I don’t want to lose players to injuries and I don’t want to overuse players. Ultimately, between now and January, we’ve got some big games and tomorrow is definitely one of them.”
Fans all over the world - including those in the UK and Ireland - can watch all of Wednesday's action live on CharltonTV (KO 7pm GMT). Click here to purchase your match pass.
