Lee Bowyer gave a number of the club’s emerging youngsters their debuts against Swansea Under-21s at The Valley on Tuesday evening.
Such is the intensity of Charlton’s schedule at the moment, Bowyer rested a number of the ‘cup’ team for the game.
It was a chance for the next generation to show what they could do. In truth, the game showed that most of them are not ready to make the step up yet.
A notable exception was Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu. The midfielder played out of position at right-back, but gave a polished performance.
Here is what assistant manager, Johnnie Jackson, had to say about him at the post match press conference:
“It’s nice from our point of view as coaches to be able to give kids debuts and see them make that progression.
“It’s also nice to see how they handle it. I said to them before the game ‘It’s a great opportunity’, for the young ones to show the manager whether they are ready to be involved with us, can we rely on them to throw them in if need be?
“The more experienced ones, can they get in the starting XI? Can they hold a place down? Are they worthy of that?
“Then you’ve got Clarkey, valuable minutes for him, so a great game for him. So it was an opportunity for everyone in a different sort of way, some took it, some didn’t.
“I thought Brendan was excellent, it’s not his natural position either, I thought he did great.”
The Checkatrade is a competition that has few friends. Managers shed few tears if their club is eliminated, while the ultra low attendances, reflect the fans’ apathy.
There were just 740 people at The Valley on Tuesday, one fewer than for the game with Fulham in the competition last season. Only 28 Swansea fans made the trip.
Nevertheless, Jackson was disappointed with the side’s performance:
“(I’m) Disappointed with how we started, (we) ended it better but ultimately, in 90 minutes we haven’t really tested their keeper.
“Has everyone out there taken their opportunity? Probably not but certainly some positives to draw from it.
“In the grand scheme of things, is it a disaster? No, because of just the fixture pile-up we’re faced with and the injuries we’ve got in the squad obviously is stretching us right to the limit at the moment.”
One of the senior players to get a run out was Tariqe Fosu. He picked up an injury towards the end of last season, and it has been stop and start for him since.
He probably needs a run of games to get back to the heights of last season, as Jackson acknowledged:
“We know what he is capable of, Tariqe, we saw it last season. He hasn’t reached them heights yet this season, but (at) Walsall he did really well.
“He needs to play his way back into form, that was the idea behind giving him more minutes tonight because he’s missed a lot of football with injuries.
“Sometimes to really get up to speed, to get back to top form, you just need to keep playing, so that was the idea behind playing him again.”
Many fans were probably surprised to see young Australian keeper, Ashley Maynard-Brewer, play instead of Dillon Phillips. Jackson explained the rationale behind the decision:
“It’s great to give debuts out. Ash is one that trains with us regularly, we know all about him. I think the opportunity was there tonight.
“Dillon played two days ago, could well play again in the replay (with Mansfield), so it seemed a good opportunity to see what he can do and give him the opportunity of a debut. I think he did ok, he didn’t let us down tonight.”
With the Checkatrade campaign over for another year, the ‘cup’ team is likely to have a more familiar look when Mansfield visit The Valley on Tuesday.
The line-up is likely to be similar to the one that played at Field Mill on Sunday. It will certainly be stronger than the team that faced Swansea on Tuesday.