Fans who harboured worries before the season weren’t alone, admits Charlton’s Chris Solly

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Some Charlton fans harboured worries for what was to come ahead of this season, and Chris Solly admits that they weren’t alone.

The Addicks had only made two signings ahead of the start of the League One campaign, and were only able to name five of a possible seven substitutes at Sunderland on the opening day of the season.

The South Londoners only won one of their opening five league games – but Lee Bowyer has since been able to bolster his squad with some decent loan acquisitions and they have now gone six games unbeaten thanks to Solly’s last-ditch equaliser at Luton Town on Saturday.

Solly admits that he had some concerns about the size of the Addicks squad before the season kicked off.

“I’m not going to lie, there was one or two worries,” explained the 27-year-old.

“Maybe leading up to the first game, we looked a little bit short. The Sunderland game we were short of numbers. Bows said all along to be fair from day one that once everyone was fit and he got the players he wanted in, we’d be right up there. He’s proving us right, isn’t he?

“We’ve got a great team spirit this year. It reminds me of the squad we had a few years back. We’re as close off the pitch as we are on it. We do stuff together outside of football. It’s a close-knit group and that bodes well when you’re on the pitch. You can see, when you come to places like this, and you need to dig out a result, that togetherness comes through.

“The biggest difference here is I always feel like we’re going to score goals now. We can go 1-0 down and I’d still fancy us to come back and win 2-1, 3-1. Maybe we didn’t have that the last couple of years. It’s a big thing. Lyle Taylor has been a massive signing for us. Karlan (Grant) has come back this season flying. Igor (Vetokele) looks fit, Nicky (Ajose) looks sharp. We’ve got four top strikers there who’ve got goals in them. It’s a massive positive.”

Photos: Kyle Andrews