Charlton midfielder Dobson: Sunderland situation helped me cope with being out of first-team picture

George Dobson has spoken about being frozen out of the Charlton Athletic first-team under Nigel Adkins – and reckons experiencing the same before at Sunderland helped him cope.

The 24-year-old was signed by the Addicks after the Wearsiders terminated his contract.

But Dobson quickly dropped out of first-team favour with Adkins not including him in five of his last six matchday squads prior to his sacking.

Caretaker manager Johnnie Jackson brought the former AFC Wimbledon loanee straight back into his side and Dobson has completed the full match in all four fixtures – the latest being the 1-0 win at Burton Albion on Saturday.

“After about four games I found myself out of favour, really,” Dobson told Charlton TV. “Obviously we didn’t have a good start, picking up only the one point in the first four games, and then a couple of players came back from injury – we brought a couple more in – and I found myself down the pecking order under the old manager.

“When you’re not involved at all. When you’re seeing all the boys going to matches and playing while you’re coming in in the afternoon and doing a session, then going home and not being involved, it’s obviously the not easy part of football.

“I was in a similar situation last year at Sunderland, so I learned a lot from that scenario. It put me in a better place for when it happened this time.

“The way we’re playing with the high press, whenever we lose the ball to try and win it back as quickly as possible, just in a way running over teams – not letting them have a chance to breathe on the ball. That’s the mentality Jacko is trying to instil around everybody at the club.

“It’s been a really good start but we’ve got to make sure it isn’t just a start. Where we are in the league is still nowhere near good enough.

“We’ve got to make sure this continues for a long time.”

PICTURE: KYLE ANDREWS