Stand up and be counted or you won’t be here next season – Jayden Stockley’s warning to fellow Charlton players
BY LOUIS MENDEZ
Jayden Stockley says that Charlton Athletic’s players must stand up and be counted for the remainder of the season if they want to still be at The Valley next year.
The Addicks have endured a hugely frustrating season and have no hope of making the play-offs this year with a 21-point deficit to make up to the top six and just 11 games left to play.
They sit nine points above the drop zone and are winless in six – with Saturday’s goalless draw with Sunderland at least bringing a five-game losing streak to an end.
The Charlton forward says that the rest of this season is now all about laying the groundwork for next season – and showing boss Johnnie Jackson that you want to be part of the side.
He said: “It’s all about habits now. How you conduct yourself. How are we going to make the fans feel towards the end of the season? Are they going to have optimism that we’re building something here?
“Players that don’t raise their level, don’t meet the standards that this club expects are probably going to fall by the wayside. Are you going to be one of those players or are you not?”
Stockley is back involved now after missing the last three months with a back complaint. His absence coincided with the end of the bounce the Addicks experienced after Johnnie Jackson replaced Nigel Adkins as Charlton boss on a temporary basis.
“Injuries played a huge part,” added Stockley when asked why he thought the form dropped off.
“Psychologically, it can do so much to a team when you think we’ve got to keep a clean sheet today because all of our strikers are injured. It is very tough. Me and Con [Conor Washington] had a partnership that I think was up there in the league with being the best partnership. It was great to be a part of that. We were confident. Every start we had together, one of us scored.
“If you take that away from a team, it’s going to be so tough. Signing Chuks [Aneke] and then him getting injured, it was really tough. We’ve got to now look at that towards the end of the season, slowly getting players back and going on another run like we did before.”
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