Karl Robinson says that everyone associated with Charlton can take great pride in the Addicks’ 2-0 victory at Crawley Town in the Checkatrade Trophy.
No fewer than 12 academy graduates were named in the 16-man squad, with 10 of them taking to the field at the Checkatrade.com Stadium.
Ben Reeves – with his first Charlton goal - broke the deadlock on 37 minutes, with youngster George Lapslie doubling the lead on his senior debut 20 minutes from time.
And afterward the Manager was delighted and highlighted the continuing success of the club’s youth system.
He said: “George Lapslie getting his goal and young Taylor coming on at the end was the icing on the cake. To have so many players take to the pitch that were academy graduates was excellent.
“Ten academy graduates played some part in the game and that is a real testament to the academy and to everybody associated with the football club.
“The academy staff do a fantastic job and I just reap the rewards at the end of it. It’s a real team effort in the development of young players and I’m really pleased for everyone at the football club.”
He continued: “I’m really happy with the performance and the goalscorers for different reasons. Reevesy showed his quality in the final third – he hits that target nine times out of 10 with his left foot – and that is why we brought him to the club.
“He’s a goalscoring number 10 and everyone knows that I want us to average two goals per game, so that we can score over 100 goals in all competitions. We also want to keep clean sheets. We kept a great one on Saturday and another tonight.”
The Manager also hailed the club’s fans, with 650 turning up to support the club’s young players.
He said: “I couldn’t believe it and we were talking about it in the dugout. We named the team early so people knew that they weren’t going to see our normal team; the Ricky Holmes’ the Jake Forster-Caskeys.
“We know Crawley isn’t too far away but it just shows how important the young players mean to our fans.
“They were here to support our young team and if Jacko and Crofty weren’t in the squad then we would have been even younger.”