KENT SENIOR CUP | Jason Euell pleased with U23s' determination after late Margate win

George Jones reports

Jason Euell praised Charlton U23s’ winning mentality after they staged a late comeback to beat Margate in the Kent Senior Cup on Wednesday night.

The young Addicks, behind to Victor Adeboyejo’s first-half opener weren’t at their best for a lot of the match but turned the encounter around late on through goals from Mikhail Kennedy and Karlan Ahearne-Grant.

And, having secured their place in the last four of the regional competition, Euell praised his side’s response.

“We had to work hard for it,” he said. “It wasn’t the best of first-half performances from us and we let them know that at half time.

“It was the good response in probably the last 35 minutes of the second half that got us the result. We made it hard work but, in the end, it was just important to get the result and get into the semi-final.”

Margate provided a physical test and Euell believes that facing such opposition will only aid his players’ development.

He said: “That’s part of the challenge that we will face, especially in this competition, and in our other games.

“Normally we have to earn the right to play when play against other U23s teams and against Margate it was more so. It’s all part of the learning curve – you can’t just turn up and expect it to go how we want to.

“If one or two of you aren’t at the level required, you need others to pick them up; it’s about the group and we need to do that more.”

Now, Euell wants his team to keep pushing forward, both in the Kent Senior Cup and in their league campaign.

He said: “We’re in it to win it. We have lost one game in two years in this competition. We want to get to the final and obviously win that too.

“It’s about the momentum that we are building up as well. We drew with Millwall on Monday and the unbeaten run goes on. We have one more game in 2016 – against Colchester on Monday – and we want to end the year with a good result.”