‘Brilliant opportunity for our players’ – Charlton boss Dean Holden on pre-season friendly at Millwall

Dean Holden is relishing Charlton Athletic facing South London rivals Millwall next month.

The two clubs will meet at The Den on July 25 (7.45pm).

This is Holden’s first pre-season in charge of the Addicks after replacing Ben Garner as manager in December.

“We spoke to Millwall and the biggest thing I wanted to do was ramp things up ahead of the season,” Holden told the South London Press.

“People said to me: ‘Are you sure?’ And I was, as long as the police agreed to it. We had to play away because we are having our pitch renovated, so the Aberdeen game is the only home one we’ve got.

“We didn’t want to travel too far.

“I thought it would be a brilliant opportunity for our players, and the new ones that come in, to have a real good understanding of what it means to play for Charlton – because I think we’ll take a decent crowd over there.

“It’s still a pre-season game but there will be a little bit of needle in it, obviously, because of the local rivalry. It’s important for the players to know what it means. It is going to be a really competitive one.

“I know Gary (Rowett) really well and his staff – very good guys. It will be an opportunity for us to test ourselves against a Championship team who went close last year and narrowly missed out at the end.

“You are trying to get the players physically ready for the new season, that’s the important thing when we talk about results not mattering in pre-season. The key is to be ready for the first game against Leyton Orient but there is a psychological element which I think is just as important as that.

“I thought it was worth doing and also that it was the right thing to do.”

PICTURE: KYLE ANDREWS