ADDICKS boss Michael Appleton isn’t setting any specific targets for the upcoming festive period.
Charlton begin a busy spell of four games in nine days tomorrow with struggling Burton Albion first up at The Valley.
Boxing Day sees a short trip over the river to Leyton Orient before another away match on Friday evening at Bristol Rovers.
There might well be a few sore heads in the stands when Oxford United visit SE7 on Boxing Day, but Appleton’s side will be stone cold sober and ideally looking to round off a hectic period with 12 points in the bag.
Not that the manager himself would be drawn into that kind of speculation when asked at his pre-match press conference this morning.
Appleton told Charlton TV: “We don’t necessarily for those four games, but we do set little targets throughout the season to try and make sure we are progressing reasonably well and we are on target.
“What we need to do is – and I’ve said it before – we need to put ourselves in a position with 10 or 12 games to go of having half a chance of this.
“I think with a few players who maybe leave the building in January, players that come in in January that will make us stronger, with the backing that I know we will get at The Valley and the away support I’ve had since I’ve walked through the door – if we can put ourselves in that type of position with the frame of mind that we’ve got half a chance here, I think it will take a bit of stopping.”
One player who did leave the building this week was Charlie Kirk, who was released by mutual consent two years after joining from Wigan.
Appleton believes the decision will work in everyone’s favour as he begins to prepare for the upcoming January transfer window which could well make or break Charlton’s promotion aspirations.
The boss said: “It was one of them where it was the right thing for both parties.
“It is the right thing for Charlie to go somewhere else and progress his career.
“The last couple of years I imagine have been really frustrating for him.
“It has not happened for him here.
“That happens in football, we’ve all seen whether we support a football club or watch a football club from afar, these things happen.”
Appleton added: “It is a good thing for him, a good thing for us.
“With the window coming up you get an opportunity to rejig things and have an idea what the squad might look like at the end of January, not necessarily the start of January.”
