MONDAY’S transfer deadline when pretty much according to plan at The Valley, according to Phil Parkinson.

The manager had already drafted in winger Kyel Reid from Sheffield United late last week and the only piece of business to occur on the final day of the window saw the return of strike Akpo Sodje from Sheffield Wednesday.

Parkinson said: “We wanted to get another forward in the building.

“We obviously haven’t got any money to spend in terms of signing players for fees, so it really boils down to free transfers or loans.

“Akpo almost comes into both categories because we’ve agreed a contract with him going into next season if he plays a certain percentage of games for the rest of this season.

“He is a Greenwich boy, he wants to play for the club, understands what it’s all about and that was key to us bringing him to the club.

“Akpo has come back to us after a month of not starting a game, so he was going to need Tuesday’s game but worked very hard for the team and had two or three opportunities to score.

“But the thing I like about Akpo is he puts himself across people in the opposition box to score and if you look at the chance just at the backend of the first half, he did exactly that.”

On Reid, Parkinson added: “Kyel is a player we’ve wanted for a long time.

“Obviously we knew about him at West Ham and I spoke about him coming here in the summer.

“He had several Championship clubs wanting him and he favoured us over a couple of the lesser clubs in the Championship.

“Sheffield United came in right at the death and he wanted to go and try his luck up there, which is a big club who he felt had the potential to get out of the Championship.

“It took us a while to get him but I’ve been speaking to Kevin Blackwell over a period of time and I feel he is going to be an asset for us.

“Reidy realises his chances have been limited at Sheffield United, he wants to move on and play football and this is a good platform for him.”