Dean Holden reiterated the importance of his side focusing on themselves ahead of Saturday’s trip to Exeter City.
Charlton travel to St James Park to take on a Grecians side who currently sit 10th in League One having suffered just one defeat in their last six outings.
“It’ll be a tough game - I always say that because I believe it will be,” explained Holden in his pre-match press conference. “It looks like a good surface to play on and we need to make sure we play our game there.
“They play a system which, when it works, can give you can cause some problems obviously. Jevani Brown is an outstanding player in terms of his goals and assists this season. He’s had a real standout season, but he’s not the only one.
“The preparation started this morning [Thursday] in terms of players getting an understanding of exactly the type of team Exeter City are and what threat that poses for us,” the boss added. “Again, we need to get a 95-minute performance out of the players and we showed signs of that last week. The focus is very much on us and making sure we play to the style that we want to see.”
Asked if Saturday’s game comes too soon for deadline day recruits Gavin Kilkenny and Michael Hector, Holden said: “Gary Caldwell, the Exeter manager, is a good friend of mine and will probably be watching this or will be fed this information, so I’m not going to give any answers in terms of Saturday for these reasons only. I respect the fact that our supporters obviously want to know what is happening.
“We’ve got individual programmes for every player - certainly for those two guys coming in, two experienced guys, obviously Michael more so. We’ll talk to them as to where they feel they’re at and what training programme they need, whilst being mindful that they haven’t played a great deal of football.
“Gavin in particular has been training now for a period of time and kicking his heels at my old club Stoke. We’re delighted to have brought both of those players in. We’re really pleased that we could get two really high-quality players into the building.”
The Addicks return to The Valley on Saturday, February 11th to take on Fleetwood Town (3pm KO GMT). Click here to purchase your tickets.
(Transcription by Alex Forrest)
