Penalty errors and apologies to fans – How Michael Hector is faring at Charlton Athletic and whether he’ll start against Sheffield Wednesday

Another face familiar in far more recent times will be Michael Hector, who spent time training with the club in January and could have re-signed for Wednesday on free agent terms before the Addicks stepped in to take him on deadline day.

The former Owls player of the season is a cult hero at S6 and would have proven a popular signing despite reservations over his lack of playing time in the last couple of years.

We asked Charlton Live’s Louis Mendez for the inside line on how Hector has fared – and whether he could line up against Wednesday.

The Hector situation in January was a bit of a whirlwind – how did it go down with Charlton fans?

Having initially batted away any notion of interest in re-signing Hector, Wednesday came around to the idea towards the back end of the January transfer window as Stoke stalled on the sanctioning of letting Aden Flint out on loan.

He trained with the club for a few days and after exploratory talks with the club the mooted deal fizzled out. On deadline day, he signed for Charlton after a short period training with them.

“People were a bit uneasy about the fact we were signing someone that hadn’t kicked a ball for such a long time,” Louis said on what seen as a pretty uninspiring signing down south.

How’s he got on?

Having built his fitness up as Holden had warned would be the case when signing him, Hector’s debut came last week off the bench as the Addicks closed out a 1-0 win at basement club Forest Green Rovers. He did well, though his full debut at Derby County on Saturday was something of a talking point – and not in a particularly good way.

“It was a decent little cameo on debut,” Louis said, praising what Holden had described to him as an ‘old school’ display of defending.

“But up at Derby he gave away a penalty for the first goal and lost his man for the second goal. At full-time he actually went over to the away end and made an apologetic gesture with his hands for his performance.

“It remains to be seen how he’ll settle in but it is in area Charlton are short in.”

Any chance of him playing this weekend?

Sounds like it’s a possibility, but that he may be allowed the weekend to watch on from the bench as he continues to build his match sharpness.

“The reason he came in [at Derby] is that Ryan Ennis has fitness issues,” Louis explained. “It’s unusual for him to play twice in a week and so it wasn’t a shock for him to come out for Hector.

“I would assume that Ryan would come back in against Wednesday but we’ll have to see. Depending on how Ryan is doing, it will be one of those two alongside Lucas Ness.”

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