Johnnie Jackson wants to see his Charlton side show grit and determination when they head to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
The Addicks travel to Hillsborough looking to arrest their recent form having now suffered four consecutive defeats.
“Everyone needs to show a bit of grit and toughness now, a bit of character to get through it,” explained Jackson. “I don’t for a second think that the effort and the endeavour has not been there; everyone’s trying as hard as they possibly can. We realise that we’re short in a few areas and that’s been the difference.
“The lads have given me everything, they’ll continue to give me everything no doubt and when you’re going to Hillsborough that’s the very least that you need. Obviously we need to see what is available to us and try to come up with a way of playing and trying to get a positive result with what is available.”
The gaffer revealed both Scott Fraser and Jayden Stockley are back in contention having resumed training at Sparrows Lane on Thursday, while also providing the following update on Mason Burstow.
“Scott and Jayden were out there on the grass today,” confirmed Jackson. “Obviously that was their first involvement, so we have to manage their reintegration with the group and the squad. We’ll look at today, we’ll look at tomorrow and we’ll decide from that whether they have any involvement from the bench.
“Neither of them will be available to come straight in and start having missed the chunk of football that they have and having had so little training. Obviously we need to see how they react from training as well because that’s their first stimulus in quite a while. The next couple of days will be key in deciding how we go about it.
“We think it was a bad bout of cramp that Mason had, fatigue-related," he added. "He’s a young lad who has obviously been thrust into senior football and is playing a lot of minutes, probably more than anyone expected, which can catch up with you.
“He has had cramp issues in games and obviously that’s another thing that we need to look at. Mason is another one who might be available. It’ll be a case of how we use him and we’ll be mindful of the fact that he had to come off the pitch on Tuesday night.”
Meanwhile, Jackson saluted the travelling Addicks who will be making the journey to Hillsborough this weekend as he harked back to memories from his playing days.
“The support has been tremendous,” said the boss. “We always travel in our numbers. We’ve had some decent games up at Hillsborough, so I’m sure people are looking forward to that.
“It’s a great place to play football. I loved playing there and I’m looking forward to managing there. It’s obviously a massive club, a massive stadium and a historical place in English football so I’m really looking forward to it.”