Charlton manager Nigel Adkins expressed his thoughts as his side ensured that they have it all to play for going into the last game of the season, beating Lincoln City 3-1 at The Valley this evening.
It was all level at half-time but an inspired substitution saw Chuks Aneke replace Ben Purrington at the break, and the Addicks opened the scoreline just moments later. Jayden Stockley pounced on Aneke’s knock down to put Charlton in the lead before Ryan Innis scored to double the lead. Aneke then added a goal for himself later on.
Speaking on Aneke’s performance Adkins said: “That’s what he was brought on to do. He’s so great at making an impact. It was a risk but one we had to take. I think he has 14 goals this season now, it’s a great return.
“He should be playing 90 minutes of football. He is a massive threat. He is great to watch. It's great he has contributed and hopefully he can contribute again, because the season is still alive.
“I’ve had to take him off at the end to stop him from getting sent off!”
Adkins was also keen to praise the performance of Aneke’s fellow forward Jayden Stockley.
He said: “I thought Jayden was fantastic again today. He played 90 minutes and could’ve scored more, he was inches away from a header. He worked so, so hard and was tracking back in the last minute of the game to win the ball back."
Captain Jake Forster-Caskey was forced off through injury in the first half and replaced by Albie Morgan, who the manager was keen to praise.
“We aren’t sure about Jake yet, we have a great medical team here who I’ll talk to and we will assess it. It may be a soft tissue injury but we don’t know yet.
“I think when Albie came on, he played really well. We trusted him deeper and he was very good on the ball. We want to give him an environment to improve,” Adkins said.
Looking ahead to the final game of the season, Charlton must better the results of Oxford United and Portsmouth to finish the season in a play-off position.
“The object was to go and get the win. We did that. It makes it interesting for the final one now.” Adkins said. “We’ve wanted to take it to the last game of the season and today was a must win game for us, the players knew it and we’ve done it so let’s see what happens.”