Academy manager eager for new challenges

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Gary Haines reports

Steve Avory wants Charlton's youngsters to embrace the revamped U18 calendar after the 2012/13 fixtures were unveiled on Friday morning.

The introduction of the Elite Player Profile Performance Plan (EPPP) has seen the Addicks given Category Two status, and they will thus compete in the new U18 Professional Development League Two - South.

The Addicks have been handed an away trip to Queens Park Rangers to kick-off their season on Saturday, August 18th, and they host Barnet in their home opener at Sparrows Lane a week later before travelling to Colchester United on the first day of September.

Charlton will also face Welsh duo Cardiff City and Swansea City in their schedule as well as derbies against Brentford and Millwall. There are also matches against Brighton & Hove Albion, Bristol City and Ipswich Town, the latter who visit Sparrows Lane on the last day of the season, April 6th, 2013.

After that the winners and runners-up take on those ranked second and first respectively in League 2 - North with the victors facing each other to be crowned second tier champions.

"It's a little bit into the unknown because some of these teams were centres of excellence before the restructuring of the academies," said Charlton's academy manager.

"That doesn't mean they are weaker. I know from friendly games that we have played against Millwall and Queens Park Rangers in the past that they've been competitive encounters and they are now on our fixture list. Queens Park Rangers is a tough game to start with.

"We play Swansea, which is a new one and an interesting game. We haven't played them very much through the years.

"Then you have Brighton, who I know play attractive football and I believe they did very well in the league last season."

Categorically speaking, the Addicks will not face league matches against local rivals such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, who are all ranked a level higher. The younger age groups, from U19 to U14 level will not be affected by the change.

And Avory admitted: "We are disappointed from an U18 and U16 point of view as the categorisation means we are not playing the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.

"Of course that's disappointing that they are not on the fixture list, but we are where we are at this moment in time.

"As we ambitiously move towards Category One, which is where we want to be, I think what we have to do is embrace the fixture list really. Certainly, we will not take anything for granted."

The complete U18 fixture list will be revealed on www.cafc.co.uk later today.