Charlton was absolutely superb on Saturday as The Hatters of Luton Town visited The Valley with a 28-game unbeaten run still intact. That was until the final whistle blew and Charlton ran out 3-1 winners in a fantastic display of football.
But there was one man who I was extremely happy for after today’s game and that was Igor Vetokele who scored his first since AFC Wimbledon and he provided an assist for Lyle Taylor as he volleyed home our third goal of the afternoon. He has endured quite a difficult time this season and now finally he is starting to come out the other end on a positive note.
Igor after his goal
He is looking a lot sharper in his movement and defiantly a lot faster than what he has looked in recent weeks. It shows how hard he and the physio team have been working on his recovery, because I think I remember hearing something a while ago, with the injury that Vetokele had it can affect your movement speed, whether that’s forever or just a temporary space of time Vetokele is almost back to his old self and that is the player we need right now with our push for the second spot looking a lot healthier as we close the gap to just three points.
Speaking with the News Shopper Igor had this to say first about that challenge from the Luton keeper
“I got told I didn’t have the ball anymore so it’s not a goal scoring opportunity so there’s not much I can do, I’m not a referee so I don’t make the rules. I can think a lot of things, but my opinion doesn’t count so as a player you need to focus on the game and try and continue. But am I OK with it? No.”
That was without a doubt a sending-off for Luton’s keeper James Shea, it was a completely reckless challenge from him and I have no idea how the ref only gave him a yellow for that it was a joke. Although something like that happened in the game, I wouldn’t change anything about that 3-1 win because we deserved it from start to finish.
Igor had more to add about his journey through injury to where he is now
“I’ve had a couple of moments I’ve enjoyed, but definitely now, I’m enjoying now, for me coming this far with the shoulder injury, I just needed games to get back to the level I wanted to be. I’m getting more games now so it’s easier to get to the level where I need to be.”
When Igor scored to make it 2-1 I was so happy for him, I pretty sure my voice broke a good twenty times as I was screaming in happiness for him and then just two minutes later he gets an assist as well and then my voice box just had enough!
Vetokele had more to add on his new strike partner Lyle Taylor
“I wasn’t worried about that because I played a couple of pre-season games with Lyle and it was going well, so I was confident we were going to find each other on the pitch. Lyle is a good player, so am I.”
I’m sure we are going to see a decent strike partnership brewing with these two up front, with Igor playing the way he is and Lyle just being Lyle, I’m sure we are going to see a lot more goals from now till the end of the season and I’m really looking forward to seeing what they will do against an in-form Oxford United side away from home.
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