Chuks Aneke back with a goal – but will he be able to feature from the start in games more often during his second spell at Charlton?
BY LOUIS MENDEZ
Chuks Aneke is back with a bang as he bagged an added-time leveller for Charlton at Cheltenham – but will he be able to feature from the off more often this time around?
The striker returned to the club from Birmingham City yesterday and lasted the full 90 minutes as the Addicks rescued a late point at Whaddon Road.
The 28-year old came off the bench 27 times for the Addicks in League One last season starting just 11 games and being subbed off ten times.
He’s on a three-and-a-half year deal at The Valley but Johnnie Jackson says he may have to wait to become a consistent full-timer.
Jackson explained: “It’s always annoyed me that you’ve got a player that good but everyone says he can only be a 30, 45 minute player. When someone is that good at what they do, you want them for longer. Chuks has had issues with injuries and things like that. You have to manage him carefully.
“It wasn’t my intention to play him 90 minutes today. I’m really delighted that he got through it and with no issues as far as I know. We need to try and build him up and get him to a position where he can do that regularly. He’s not all of a sudden going to become a 90 minute Saturday-Tuesday player – that’s a long-term project. But he’s our player now. We’ve got time. I want to get as much use out of him as I can.
“I’m really light in that position. If Stockley and Washington are fit, Chuks probably starts from the bench and you bring him on. But they’re not, we’re light there and there you go – you‘re there from start from start Chuks.
“Temptation was to bring him off. Chuks has only trained with us once and he hasn’t got a history of 90 minutes. But it’s very difficult to take someone like that off the pitch when you do need a goal. Chuks loves scoring. I’ve encouraged him from when I was working with him before to stay between the goalposts as a centre-forward.
“That’s where your goals are going to come. He’s done that there at the end. Got a little poachers finish. I don’t mind saying that’s what we’ve been lacking. We haven’t been scoring them ugly goals. Everything had to be the perfect goal. We need someone to go and sniff out a goal and he’s done that.
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