Green poised to retain shirt after Derby display (From This Is Local London)

Green poised to retain shirt after Derby display

3:37pm Thursday 20th September 2012 in Latest Sport By Paul Green

DANNY Green looks set to retain his place in the Charlton XI after an eye catching effort in Tuesday’s defeat at Derby.

The winger got the nod to start at Pride Park after coming on late on against Palace and causing the Eagles a few problems.

Charlton found themselves 3-0 down against the Rams by the 64th minute in midweek but were soon back in it when Green scored a spectacular strike before Yann Kermorgant struck to make it 3-2 moments later.

That set up a thrilling finale but the Addicks just couldn’t pull an equaliser out of the bag.

Explaining his decision to go with Green at Derby, manager Chris Powell said: “I felt he made an impact on Friday night and gave us width and delivery into the box, which obviously the strikers like, so I felt that he could start that game.

“Initially he was playing too deep, I asked him to play higher in the second half.

“Anyone who wasn’t at the game would have seen the reports he was our key player, without a doubt.

“He created numerous chances, scored a goal of the season contender already, assisted for Yann’s goal, created another chance and he was very, very good.

“He was the sort of impetus for our comeback which sadly we couldn’t complete.”

The defeat at Derby was Charlton’s third on the spin and although Powell believes his side could have got something from the game, he knows the stats don’t lie, even if the Addicks aren’t the only Championship side out of sorts at the moment.

He said: “Against Derby we gave ourselves too big a mountain to climb when clearly we could have scored five goals in the last half an hour. It was just amazing.

“They cleared three off the line.

“But it shows we are creating chances.

“We’ve to look to arrest the slide as soon as we can.

“There is a long way to go.

“We’ve lost three straight games but so have Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich are exactly the same as us, there are a number of teams who have lost two on the bounce and it is just the way things are going at the moment.

“I believe in this group.”

Powell added: “We need now to be really positive because there are a few positives to take from the games, but ultimately you are judged on your points and games you win or draw.

“We’ve just got to remain focussed and positive and that’s all we can do.

“We know this year is always going to be about trying to just be a team that consolidates in this league, we know that.

“We are under no illusions with regards to what this season is about but of course you would just like to raise your confidence levels somewhat and know that you can win football matches.

“You do whatever it takes to win football matches and we need to get back to that.

“We had a year last year where the pressure was on us and we had to live with that pressure to win games.

“This year I suppose people are looking at us as under not so much pressure but underdogs in a league that people are saying we are new to, so maybe we have to look at it that way as well.”

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