Charlton Athletic manager on signing Championship standard players, a top, top Peterborough United side and Alfie May's fitness battle

Charlton manager Michael Appleton. Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images.

The 23 year-old could make his Charlton against Posh in London on Saturday (3pm) alongside fellow new recruits Tyreeq Bakinson and Lewis Fiorini. All three are midfielders as Appleton seeks to pep up a team who haven’t won in their last nine competitive outings.

Coventry was signed from West Ham United, but even with him Appleton accepts his side face a tough game against third-placed Posh.

“It’s massive to get Conor on board," Appleton told the Charlton media team. "For me, he’s a minimum Championship player and we had to fight off a lot of Championship interest.

"Everyone associated with the football club and the board should take real confidence in the fact that Conor wanted to come here.

"I actually took him on his first loan about four years ago at Lincoln, so I’ve built up a relationship with him and his family since then. He’s a top talent and he fits the vision of where the football club wants to go

"Peterborough have got a lot of quality in their group though. They recruit well and they’ve got a fantastic group. We’re going to have to be at our best to win the game, but with the lift from the new bodies coming into the building and it being a home game, we’ve got an opportunity to really put them under pressure.”

Coventry, who held transfer talks with struggling Championship side Sheffield Wednesday earlier this week, started just four Championship games for Posh when on loan at London Road in the first half of the 2021-22 season.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson also knows Charlton top scorer Alfie May well having introduced him to the Football League when Doncaster Rovers manager in 2017.

May is not certain to start tomorrow despite recovering well from a back problem.

"Alfie’s really close,” Appleton added. “We’ve got to be mindful of is the fact that there’s obviously still a hell of a lot of games between now and the end of the season. We don’t want to risk it all for one game so to speak, even though it’s a huge game against a top, top side.”