Karl Robinson is just two weeks short of celebrating a year in post as Charlton manager -  a tenure which began at The Valley with a 0-0 draw with Milton Keynes in the FA Cup on December 3rd 2016.

The replay was lost 1-3 but revenge was gained on Boxing Day with Ademola Lookman's final strike for Charlton from an excellent pass from Andrew Crofts.

And then, on 4th April this year came one of the most depressing performances of the last few years when MK won 2-0 at The Valley. It seemed almost as if the emotion and pageantry of the PC Palmer memorial tributes had drained the life out of the Charlton players.

Now we host them again at a time when optimism around the club is probably at its highest since the start of the Bob Peeters season. Robinson has spent some of his time during the international break meeting with supporters and he has been successful in spreading positive vibes through his infectious enthusiasm and natural rapport skills. Recent results haven't done any harm either even though the last two games have delivered attritional 1-0 wins.

At a meeting with City Addicks this week Robinson expressed the opinion that Milton Keynes's Chuks Aneke is the best player in League 1. Now, we know our Karl does enjoy a bit of hyperbole from time to time (didn't he compare Joe Aribo to Ya Ya Toure* ?) but that is a pretty big claim. 24 year old Aneke is a product of the Arsenal Academy who made one appearance for The Gunners as a 90th minute sub in a cup match. He played 70 games on loan at Crewe and scored 20 goals between 2012-2014. Bizarrely, he then signed a two year contract with Zulte Waregem in good old Belgium. He was out injured for almost a year before joining MK in November 2016. He has since scored 6 goals in 22 appearances. He represented England at under 16, 17, 18 and 19 levels. It will be interesting to compare him with Konsa and DaSilva on the pitch on Saturday.

Charlton fans will hope that these two return from England under 20 duty on Wednesday evening  with enough energy to contribute on Saturday. It seems more and more likely that Konsa will depart in January so we should exploit all opportunities to enjoy seeing him over the next two months.

This weekend's game is the first of four in ten days for Charlton. Scunthorpe away is a tall order but winning the three home games is very possible. 2-0 on Saturday would do nicely.

*or was it Patrick Viera ?