New Charlton defender Ryan Inniss ready to kick on at The Valley
BY LOUIS MENDEZ
After 10 loan spells away from Selhurst Park during his time with Crystal Palace, new Charlton defender Ryan Inniss hopes he’s finally found somewhere to call home.
The centre-back’s temporary moves saw him travel as far afield as Newport County in Wales and Dundee in Scotland. He made just two EFL Cup appearances during his time with Palace, where he progressed through the youth ranks, but will want to make sure he develops into a mainstay in the Charlton defence after becoming one of Lee Bowyer’s 12 summer signings last week.
The South London-born 25-year-old made his Addicks debut during Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Wigan Athletic, impressing as the host battled to hold on the three points.
Inniss said: “For me, on a personal note, you go and loan and give everything but there comes a time sometimes where you’re on loan and they may want to play their own players or you don’t get to where you want to in a season and it gets cut short.
“But I want to be part of a project. This is a brilliant one. We’ve got strength in depth all over the park. The club is going to continue to build as we progress. It’s good that we’ve got off to a good start and all the boys want to keep their shirts. Definitely for me here, it’s perfect. It’s only up the road from me so family-wise it suits me. I knew a lot about Charlton before I came here so it was a no-brainer for me really. Hopefully we can kick on.
“I’m really enjoying it. I’ve had two or three training sessions. It’s lively, the boys are great. We all get on. I’ve only been here a week. You learn more about your team-mates on the pitch, I think. Their deep characters. Today I’ve played with players and they’ll know what I’m about, I’ll know what they’re about now and what makes them tick. It only makes us stronger together by playing together.
“It was great to get off to a good start and a clean sheet [against Wigan]. The boys rallied well towards the end. Considering it was the first game with a lot of the boys together as a unit, we’ve definitely got that base to kick on and progress as a team in possession.
“There’s plenty of communication between the boys. The boys want to do the ugly things at times. In this division you definitely need to be able to do that. Roll your sleeves up, especially during the last five minutes. That was the difference between one point and three points today.”
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