Charlton boss Jones wants ‘trust’ in terms of Miles Leaburn development after brace in win over Chairboys

Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones praised Miles Leaburn’s second-half performance in today’s 2-1 win over Wycombe Wanderers at The Valley.

The striker scored a quickfire double early in the second half, first of all turning in Josh Edwards’ excellent cross from the right wing before lobbing Chairboys keeper Franco Ravizzoli from Luke Berry’s ball through.

Leaburn is now on eight goals in all competitions and has netted in the last three matches as Charlton have taken nine points from a possible nine.

“At times in the second half he was unplayable – when he got the bit between his teeth, after the goals and when he got kicked,” said Jones.

“He looked fantastic. There is a lot of hype around him but if he knuckles down, gets his head right and realises what he is really good at – works at the stuff he hasn’t [got] – and keeps working hard (then he has a bright future).

“There is a footballer there, if people trust us with his development then we will develop him into a wonderful centre-forward, because we have got a very, very good record of doing that.”

Leaburn came off in the closing stages to be replaced by Gassan Ahadme.

“He has come back from an 11-month injury to do start three games – the shift he puts in, that we’re asking him to do, puts him at risk,” said Jones. “If I’m honest I was going to pull him at 70 but he looked strong, so I left him on.

“That was just always the plan – we weren’t going to play him for 90.

“I pulled him at 60 and said: ‘Give me 10 really good minutes’ and he did that. He carried on looking a threat. I would’ve liked him to have got a hat-trick but also he was contributing.

“I didn’t make the change too early.

“He did wonderfully well to hold him (the defender) off and wrap his leg around it to score the volley – that is Miles Leaburn all over. If we can work on the quality, and putting more quality in, then we will create more chances.

“We constantly work on our attacking structure and fluency in the final third. Sometimes it doesn’t come off but it’s not because we’re not working on it. We work on our build-up from the back but sometimes teams press us well and we can’t do it. But we work on it religiously. I don’t just go in and do a five-a-side – put the coffee machine on and have a flat white – we work hard every single day.

“When it comes right, we look the team like that. When it doesn’t we go away and work harder.”

PICTURES: PAUL EDWARDS