Nigel Adkins stresses importance of EFL Cup runout for Charlton debutants after AFC Wimbledon triumph at The Valley

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Boss Nigel Adkins praised some of the young talent in his side after Charlton were knocked out of the League Cup in the first round for the third time in four years following AFC Wimbledon’s 1-0 victory at The Valley.

The Addicks had made seven changes to the team that drew 0-0 with Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the League One season but were edged out by a Wombles side who themselves had made eight alterations from their win at Doncaster over the weekend.

Paul Osew plundered the only goal of the game on 26 minutes and the home side once again struggled to turn any promising forays into the final third into chances – forcing just shot on target after failing to force any at all on Saturday.

But Adkins was keen to emphasise the importance the game for young debutants Deji Elewere and Jacob Roddy, whilst Charles Clayden was also handed his first start for the club after being introduced from the bench late on against the Owls four days previously.

“Well done to Wimbledon, they’ve won the game 1-0,” said Adkins

“But from my point of view there were debuts for some real talented, young players that have come through our academy. We’ve got a young 17-year-old playing centre-half, Deji [Elerewe]. We’ve got young Jacob [Roddy] making his debut at 18 as well. The front line – I thought [Charles] Clayden, [Josh] Davison and [Hady] Ghandour were playing some exhilarating stuff at times in there. There’s a lot of positives from that point of view, obviously disappointed we didn’t get the victory but there’s many things that we can take from that.

“This is our squad, at the end of the day there needs to be a pathway for the Academy into the first team, but this is our squad of players. I’ve rested three or four players from a point of view that the game we played on Saturday took a lot out of the players as well. We’ve got one or two with little niggles from that point of view and then we’ve got tonight and we’ve got Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday coming up.

“You’ll find in tonight’s fixture across the leagues that everybody would have made a lot of changes – I think they made nine changes. Everyone’s got to be mindful of the players, but for me a great learning opportunity for a lot of our younger players. If anything, we had a few huffs and puffs, a few decisions that probably went against us that on another day wouldn’t have gone against us and we could have capitalised on.”

PHOTOS: PAUL EDWARDS