Hat-trick hero Josh Magennis on his and his family's perfect Monday

George Jones reports

Monday proved to be the perfect day for the Magennis family and in more ways than one.

As well as Charlton striker Josh netting the first hat-trick of his career in our 4-1 victory over Bristol Rovers in SE7, his son Jenson – celebrating his second birthday – was mascot for the match.

And once the Addicks forward’s third goal hit the back of the net, Josh admitted that he became almost overwhelmed with emotion.

“It was a brilliant feeling,” he said. “I knew straight away that I’d just scored my first ever hat-trick and it was a special day for me because it was my little’un’s second birthday.

“He was the mascot and everything rolled in nicely for me. The stars were aligned; it was a blessed day for my family and it is one that we won’t forget.”

On Magennis junior, Josh added: “He [Jenson] just knows that daddy kicks a football around. He comes to every game and is fully kitted out, so he knows I’m something to do with football!

“I’m not sure he understands that extent of what I do yet but he enjoys coming and that’s all that matters for me.”

The Charlton forward became the 47th man to hit a treble for the club and he was delighted to have added his name to the list, with his third goal giving him the greatest satisfaction.

He said: “The third one stands out for me.

“I have a great relationship with Crofty. He has a fantastic range of passing and I know that if I make those runs then nine times out of 10 the ball will come. It was down to me to do the final bit and today I managed to finish it.

“We want to play expansive football and we knew a weakness of theirs was that their right-back liked to bomb on a lot, which exposed the right side of their defence.

“It was up to me to pull into those areas as much as I could. Football is a 90-plus minute game, so it might not happen every minute.

“When it does, though, you have got to make it count and today we did.”

Magennis – like the rest of his teammates – left the Valley pitch to a standing ovation and with the match ball under his arm.

The striker says that their focus now turns to our local derby against Millwall, with the Lions due at The Valley on Saturday, January 14th.

He said: “There is a score to settle. We didn’t do ourselves any justice in the way that we played and the great thing about football in this league is that you get to play each other again.

“It’s up to us to put it right and leave no stone unturned. We have got a fantastic backroom staff and our video analyst works 24/7 for us, we’ll be well prepared and then it’s just up to us to do the business when we cross the white line.”