Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones isn’t happy that one of his players is missing for their clash against Derby County tonight.
After losing 2-1 against fellow promotion hopefuls Barnsley on Saturday, Derby County must bounce back by beating Charlton Athletic.
The Rams are still in a very strong position to win promotion back to the Championship, although that loss has seen them fall seven points adrift of leaders Portsmouth while Bolton Wanderers can overtake them if they win their game in hand.
In that defeat to the Tykes, Paul Warne was without top scorer James Collins for the second game running and while he’s sidelined for a ‘significant’ period, the Derby boss does have other players who can step up.
Despite Nathaniel Mendez-Laing starting as a central striker against Barnsley, Warne has hinted at throwing Dwight Gayle into the side for his full debut after impressing from the bench.
Likewise, striker Martyn Waghorn – who has been out of action since December with a calf injury – is back in contention to return tonight.
While that is a huge boost to Derby’s threat going forward, their opponents have been weakened defensively after centre-back Lloyd Jones picked up a suspension on Saturday following his 10th yellow card of the season.
Nathan Jones is ‘sad’ that Lloyd Jones is unavailable to face Derby County
Speaking ahead of the clash, the Charlton Athletic manager is sad that Jones is unavailable, but feels it has opened up the door for someone else to impress.
“It gives someone else a chance,” Jones said. “That’s what we’ve demanded from people. We’ve got six centre-halves here. We’ve got Michael Hector back, [Lucas] Nessy is there and [Macaulay] Gillesphey came on and played [on Saturday]. There is cover.
“It’s sad really because Lloyd’s been in good form. He’s been aggressive and he’s defended fantastically well, but it gives someone else a chance now.”
Jones, a former England under-20 international, has played in all but two matches for Charlton this term which speaks volumes of his importance to the side.
The 28-year-old has bossed proceedings defensively having registered 5 balls recovered per game, 4.3 clearances and won 68% of his total duels.
His likely replacement is Macaulay Gillesphey, who arrived on loan from Plymouth Argyle in January and has been hauled off the pitch at half-time in two of the four matches he’s started.
Given how important Jones is to the side, the fact he’s missing for this match will encourage the likes of Mendez-Laing and Gayle going forward as Derby aim to rediscover their goalscoring touch.
That said, Charlton have taken points off Bolton and Portsmouth in their last two matches, so the Rams will want to avoid being the third promotion-chasing scalp they’ve taken.