Church sees Valley debut prayers answered with brace

The striker opened the scoring with a crisp, right-footed finish in the first half before making it 3-0 after the interval with a left-footed strike from just inside the area.

Church’s second goal may have sealed an impressive debut hat-trick if he had converted Joe Pigott’s low cross a few minutes earlier.

But he was nonetheless pleased with his display and relieved to have bounced back from his earlier miss by sealing the Addicks’ place in the second round of the cup.

The Welsh international said: “I think I preferred my second goal after the chance that I had missed.

“I thought I would get another chance and that I better stick that one away, otherwise the one I missed will have kept playing on my mind.

“But that’s the thing as a striker, I have to keep getting chances and keep believing I will get chances and that's what I live for – scoring goals.

“And to score two on my home debut is a great start.”

Church added: “I don’t really set any targets but obviously I am just looking to score as many goals as I can.

“Last night was a good start for me, but that is just a start.

“I need to keep pushing on and keeping working hard and hopefully the goals will come.

“The main thing from the back of the weekend was to get a good result, one in front of the home fans, and on a personal level it was great to start my home debut with two goals.”

Church was snapped up by Addicks boss Chris Powell last Thursday after impressing during a one-week trial to ease his striker crisis.

The former Reading man has now had two weeks and two matches with his new team-mates and has been impressed with what he has seen.

Church said: “They have been excellent, they are a great bunch of lads.

“Their work ethic in training and on the pitch, as you would have seen last night, was top notch and there is a lot of quality in the squad as well which will bode well for the season ahead.”

Before the Welshman’s arrival in SE7, it had been well documented Powell only had one senior striker at his disposal in Kermorgant.

The addition of Church and fellow frontman Marvin Sordell have done a lot to ease the fans’ fears and the two-goal hitman admitted that he is well aware of the skills possessed by crowd favourite Kermorgant.

Church said: “He has been really great.

“Obviously it has only been two weeks but I got the chance to play with him for about 20 minutes at the weekend and he is a great player.

“I have heard a lot about him down here and have seen him score a lot of goals.

“He is a great player and so are the rest of the squad.

“I think we are looking really strong.”

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