Ben Garner praises mental strength of Jes Rak-Sakyi as Palace loanee recovers from first half misses to fire Charlton to victory at Shrewsbury
Charlton boss Ben Garner praised the mental strength of Jes Rak-Sakyi after the Crystal Palace loanee recovered from two glaring first half misses to plunder a winner at Shrewsbury Town.
The 20-year-old, who is on a season-long loan from Selhurst Park, fluffed two clearcut chances before half-time at the New Meadow but was on hand to convert Jack Payne’s centre 20 minutes from time as the South Londoners finally bagged a first away league win of the campaign.
The result made it three wins on the spin for Garner’s side – with their eight-game winless run preceding that now a distant memory. The Addicks climb to seventh in the League One table, two points off the top six albeit having played at least one more game than the two sides directly above them.
“[A win on the road was] a long time coming,” admitted Garner.
“A really tough place to come. They’re a really physical team and they play very direct. You have to stand up to that. It’s difficult to create chances against Shrewsbury but we created so many. Just couldn’t get it in first half. We spoke about staying positive and showing our mentality in the second half and we did that. “Epitomised by Jes, who had a couple of good opportunities but kept his head and kept going and won the three points for us.
“He’s got a wonderful trait of always being in a place to score. Even though they haven’t been going in for him recently, he keeps getting there. That’s going to do him a world of good throughout his career. He has a strong mentality. He doesn’t let things affect him. Delighted for him today to get that.
“I had a good chat with him this week. I said ‘if you’re not getting opportunities then we’d have to look at things, but you keep getting there. Just got to keep getting there and trust your technique’. That will do him the world of good. He’s done great so far.”
The Charlton chief also heaped praise on 19-year-old Tyreece Campbell. The academy star impressed during his full league debut after coming in for the injured Corey Blackett-Taylor – and came close to scoring with a fierce drive in the first period.
Garner said: “For his full debut, he did great as well.
“He’s excited me since the first time I saw him. It’s just been a case of getting him back fit. He’s trained with us regularly.
“We lost Corey to a minor injury. I didn’t want to go away from what we’ve worked on. Tyreece offers a similar option with his pace and his dribbling ability. The way we wanted to press. If they’re good enough, they’ll get their opportunity and he’s taken it with both hands.”
The Addicks now sit just outside the play-off places, having been looking nervously over their shoulders at the drop zone barely a fortnight ago.
“That’s how quickly things can change in these leagues,” added the Addicks manager.
“You get back-to-back wins and you move up the table. I haven’t looked at it but the nice thing is we’re winning games and we’ve got that momentum.”
PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS