THREE of Charlton’s most promising youth prospects came agonisingly close to making their Addicks debut at The Valley on Saturday.

Central midfielder Freddie Warren, winger Callum Harriott and England’s U17 defender Jordan Cousins were all named on the bench against Luton Town in the second round of the FA Cup by manager Phil Parkinson.

Parky made the decision to call up the under-18 standouts after injuries, suspensions and cup-tied players left the Reds short-staffed in the midst of a hectic fixture schedule.

However, he eventually elected to use just the one substitution after watching the non-league Hatters give his side a battle from start to finish, leaving the trio waiting a little longer for their big moment.

Parkinson explained after the 2-2 draw: “We’ve spoken many a time about the bench being important and today we had a lot of kids there, but in a different scenario with a different scoreline one or two of them might have come on.

“But it was a very tight game today and I felt we needed to keep the experienced players on the pitch.”

Of the absentees, Charlton certainly missed the presence of centre-back Gary Doherty and engine room man Jose Semedo, two pivotal figures in the team’s recent run of form.

But Parky expects both men to be available for this weekend’s trip to Rochdale, and believes goalscorer Joe Anyinsah will be ready to start again after bringing the forward off to help aid his own recovery from injury.

He explained: “I think Semedo will be back, and Doc had a late fitness test and didn’t quite make it but he’ll be back for Saturday as well.

“He tried to make it today, but he just couldn’t quite sprint and as a defender you can’t put yourself in a big cup tie like this if you’re not right so he was professional and didn’t feel he was ready to play and the physio will back that up.

“Joe got his goal and he was always going to have 65-70 minutes because we didn’t want to risk him getting re-injured but there was no occurrence of that and he did okay.”

Despite the draw and ESPN’s decision to pick up the replay causing even more congestion for the Addicks’ schedule, Parkinson believes this rare 7-day period between games will be just what the players need to keep their undefeated streak going.

He added: “Some of the players have played a lot of games, like Jacko and Franny, and you could see they were treading water at times but that happens when you’ve had so many games and this week will be one of recovery before next week at Rochdale.

“I think a ten game unbeaten run is a boost for the players and it’s my job to keep reminding them that they’ve done well over those games.

“The work rate and the shape of the team has given us that platform to go on and win or draw all of those football matches and that’s what we’ve got to keep doing.”