Nathan Jones is relishing a return to competitive football as the Addicks travel to the EV Charger Points Stadium on Saturday (KO 5.30pm BST) to take on Cheltenham Town in the first round of the Carabao Cup.
The fixture comes a week before Jones’ side kick-off their 2026/27 Sky Bet Championship game at The Valley against Derby County but the Charlton Manager is fully focused on the task in front of his team.
“It’s our first competitive game, we’re treating it that way, it’s a really important competition,” he said. “It’s a nice way to do it actually, we did it after COVID. The cup game came the week before the season – it’s a really good way of doing it. We’ll treat it as our first competitive game and prepare accordingly.
“We want to win the game, we always learn from outcomes and performances. We don’t want to be a headline, we want to win the game.”
Cheltenham finished 18th in League Two last season, improving under the guidance of Steve Cotterill.
“We know all about Steve,” Jones explained. “He’s a fantastic manager, he’s had a wonderful career. It’s a real good club. The training ground for the level is excellent, the ground always provides a real tough test, so we know it’s going to be a really, really tough game.”
Charlton's U21s played a pre-season friendly in midweek, which was an opportunity for a number of men’s first team players to get important minutes.
He said: “It was a top up game for minutes. Collins Sichenje played 60 minutes in that, so did Daniel Kanu. People like Ibby Fullah and Nathan Asiimwe also played. Daniel Kanu and Collins really needed the minutes and it was good for them.”
The Charlton Manager also updated on players returning to fitness: “Rob Apter is back training fully, so is Micah Mbick. Collins Sichenje has had minutes, he got minutes against Reading and he’s played midweek, so he’s much, much closer. We’re in a better place. Sonny Carey missed last week with illness, he’s had a full week’s training so we’re in a better place.”
After signing five players this transfer window, Jones is still hoping to strengthen in central midfield and on the right wing.
“We’re in a good place with one of those positions,” he said. “We hope we can announce certain stuff soon but until it’s been announced, signed, sealed and delivered, we can’t do anything. We’re in a decent place, hopefully by the end of this weekend we’ll only have one position to do and that’s one that maybe we can afford to wait a little bit on because you never know what happens.”
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