PHIL Parkinson has hailed the impact made by recent loan signings John Jackson and Kyel Reid after Saturday’s welcome 2-0 win over Yeovil.
Reid capped an impressive performance with a stunning first half opener, while Jackson, who arrived from Notts County last Thursday, slotted straight into the left back role on his Addicks debut.
Charlton fans have been highly critical of the club’s over reliance on the loan market in recent seasons, but Parkinson hopes the scepticism is fading after the impact made by those who have joined on a temporary basis this year.
“Well I hope so,” the manager said.
“I’ve tried to explain many times to our supporters about loan signings.
“Loan players aren’t all bad, you’ve just got to get the right ones with the right reasons for coming to play for Charlton.
“If you look at Kyel Reid, Dave Mooney and John Jackson, I would imagine they would all want to come here permanently and in the back of their minds will be thinking if they play well here, they might have a permanent move.
“So they’ve got to have the right hunger and they’ve got to have the right fitness levels to come here and hit the ground running.
“Jacko, having been in Notts County’s team, is certainly up to speed.
“When you get a new player in the building, it just gives everyone a lift.
“Reidy did that a few weeks ago and after our recent run of games, it was good. “Obviously we didn’t want to do it with one of our players getting injured like Grant Basey – and we are hoping he won’t be too bad – but Jacko is a good addition at the moment.”
Saturday’s victory over the Glovers was the first success the Addicks have enjoyed since a 2-1 win over Hartlepool in mid January.
Parkinson made four alterations to his starting line-up from the team which lost 2-1 at Bristol Rovers and the decision paid off as Charlton delivered arguably their most accomplished display of 2010.
The boss said: “The changes obviously went well today.
“I just felt after Monday at Bristol Rovers there was a few players who deserved a chance.
“Sometimes if you look at Miguel Llera, he has done great for us this season anyway but while he has been out of the team, his attitude has been absolutely first class.
“I felt if I didn’t put him back in the team after the way we played on Monday, then it would be difficult for him to keep going mentally.
“He deserved a chance and he took it.”
With Norwich losing at home to Southampton and Leeds scraping a last-gasp home draw with Brighton, the League One table suddenly looks a lot better from a Charlton perspective.
Parkinson is only too aware how quickly things can change but added he isn’t going to be distracted by what other teams do.
“It does change quickly and that’s why we’ve just got to focus on ourselves,” he explained.
“We can’t affect other teams’ results, we’ve just got to concentrate on what we need to do.
“There was a calmness about us today right from the first whistle.
“I felt it in the dressing room and we spoke about it to the lads during the week that whether we are successful or we fail this year, we want to do it by getting the ball down and playing football, which we’ve done all season.
“They’ve probably gone away from that and we got back to it today, which I was pleased with.”
Parkinson added: “All I’ll say about Norwich is the run they’ve had has been extraordinary.
“The fact we’re still in touching distance of them is a great credit to the way we’ve done this season because they’ve only lost a couple of games.
“It has been an incredible run and we are in touching distance, but there is still a long way to go.”
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