Charlton Athletic U23s defender Jacob Roddy spoke to Valley Gold after the 2-2 draw at home to Colchester United.
The 18-year-old joined the Addicks having previously been at Southampton’s Academy from the age of 8 to 16 and Bradfield College from 16 to 18. The full-back describes himself as energetic and likes to get forward to cause problems for the opposition, and is someone who is both comfortable on the ball and is willing to put his body on the line to keep the ball out of his team’s net.
He told Valley Gold: “We started sharply and managed to go 1-0 up within 9 minutes from a free-kick struck by Aaron Henry. However, against the run of play Colchester managed an equaliser on 13 minutes changing the momentum of the game. After previously dominating, the game became a lot more scrappy and hard to get control of. Not soon after Colchester then added a second goal to the scoreline. After a tough finish to the half, the score remained 2-1 to Colchester going into the break.
“With a few tactical changes, we came out in the second half and began to gain control of the game, proving a problem on the counterattack. After 60 minutes a formation change led to a final 30 minutes of many chances being created by us. But it took until the 82nd minute to finally break down the Colchester defence with a goal from Daniel Kanu which involved quick build-up play and a tricky assist from Johl Powell.
“On another day if we had taken our chances we would have gained all 3 points however this was not to be the case. That said, a great amount of fight was shown in a difficult game to make sure a point was salvaged nonetheless.”
Charlton U23s now sit 7th in the league with 5 games played.
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