Charlton Athletic boss Ben Garner on Jayden Stockley’s three-game ban for violent conduct

Charlton Athletic manager Ben Garner has admitted that Jayden Stockley merited an FA ban for his off-the-ball elbow on a Port Vale defender.

The FA have suspended the Addicks captain for three matches after he did not contest a charge of violent conduct.

Garner did not confirm whether Stockley had been fined for the incident, which rules him out until the middle of December.

Garner told the South London Press: “Jayden is frustrated and disappointed by it – especially the position we are in being a little bit stretched in the squad. And now we miss Jayden for three games. He’s made a bad decision within the game and that has cost him and it has cost us. The important thing now is we move on from that. He’s had his punishment from the FA, it’s something we will look at internally as well and then we’ll draw a line under it and move forward.

“We don’t want that type of thing happening. We’ve generally had good discipline this year on the pitch and the previous red cards or discipline issues have been unjust. Ryan Inniss springs to mind with two reds that I don’t think either were.

“But this is the first time we’ve had a discipline issue and it’s something we will put to bed and stop. We don’t want that moving forwards.”

Stockley has scored three times in 22 appearances for the Addicks, the most recent in the FA Cup win over Coalville Town. His last league goal was on October 1 against Oxford.

At the same stage of last season he had 10 goals.

Stockley has not been completely suited to the style of play employed by Garner. The former Preston and Exeter City targetman has been unable to use his aerial prowess fully.

Asked if Stockley’s reaction could be a frustration over his impact for Charlton, Garner replied: “I don’t know. That’s internal for Jayden and how he is processing things. It’s difficult for me to comment on what people are feeling or thinking at a moment in time.

“It did look like a frustration on the day in the game, maybe the way it was going, but I had a really good chat with Jayden yesterday – it’s about how we move forwards from here. How does he use this time more effectively so that when he is available again he is in the best place. That’s all we can do.

“Anything that happens in this game you need to try and move on – find the positives. We’ve been doing that regularly over the last six or seven weeks because there has been a lot of bad news and disappointments in terms of injuries and things along those lines.

“We can’t get down about it or get negative about these things. It’s happened, we deal with it, take action and then we move forwards in as positive a manner as we can.”

Charlton are also without Miles Leaburn (ankle), leaving Chuks Aneke as the only fit and available senior striker.

The Addicks host Stockport County tomorrow in the FA Cup second round.

“We prepared yesterday with a system that we’re happy with,” said Garner. “We think it will be good on Saturday. Chuks is building his minutes up and has done well in training. He’s getting stronger, for sure. And we’ve got to look at other options around that and other considerations, which we’ve done.

“We’re well aware of where we are at that end of the pitch – what we can and can’t do. We’ve got to work within those parameters. It’s always about finding the strengths of the players. I’m not going to ask someone to do something I don’t think they can do. I want them to play to their strengths and the group to play to their strengths. If they do that we can beat anyone in League One. So if we do that on Saturday, against a strong League Two side in Stockport, and perform to the levels we can then we’ll give ourselves a fantastic chance of getting through to that next round.”

PICTURE: PAUL EDWARDS