By Gary Haines

HE'S BEEN one of the unsung heroes of Charlton's fight for survival since arriving in January and Ben Thatcher is itching to get back in the mix against Newcastle United.

The left-back missed Saturday's trip to Watford after sustaining a knee injury in the 4-0 thumping of West Ham United on February 24.

But, after watching his side battle back from two goals down to seal a 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road, he is hoping to be back in the first-team fold when the Magpies come to The Valley on March 18.

He said: "It was disappointing to miss the Watford game but the knee was too sore to play.

"I took a knock to the knee halfway through the game against West Ham. As I remember I barged into their substitute Kepa Blanco and twisted my knee.

"I knew I'd done something to my knee but when you're playing you have that adrenaline so I didn't really notice until after the game.

"Iit wasn't until I woke up on Sunday morning I realised how bad it was."

So, instead of offering his substantial experience to the left of the backline, Thatcher joined the likes of Madjid Bougherra, Hermann Hreidarsson and Marcus Bent on the Hertfordshire sidelines.

Like most Premiership professionals Thatcher finds life in the stands far from comfortable, but he had a good view of the proverbial Addicks performance of two halves.

He said: "If I'm not playing I like to see the games and how we do and my feeling was the same as most people in that we didn't get started in the first half for one reason or another.

"But in the second half we played really, really well and if we had started the game like that I'm confident we would have won the game comfortably.

"Again it showed a decent bit of fight from us and the feeling we had afterwards was it was more than a draw with the equaliser coming so late."

Having picked up another handy point at Vicarage Road, Charlton have a weekend off before the Magpies swoop into SE7 and the 31-year-old is keen to play his part.

Ben said: "With this weekend off it's given me a good chance and I'm hoping to be back for Newcastle.

"I want to get back as quickly as possible, and get back in the fight."