Twenty-goal Dion Not Stopping Yet

Dion Charles put himself in the Wanderers’ history books and wants even more goals to make sure he stays there.

Charles became the first Wanderers’ player since Michael Ricketts in the 2000/01 season to hit the 20-goal mark with the Whites’ winner at Oxford United.

And the Northern Ireland international – who has also netted twice for his country this season – hopes to stay in the groove to set an even tougher target for others to try and reach in the future.

“It’s a great achievement. I’ve said previously I came here to score goals. I’ve said all along that if you give me the chances, I’ll put them away,” said Charles after his early strike at the Kassam Stadium earned Ian Evatt’s men another big three points in their play-off push.

“I’ve also said before that I’ll get all the plaudits for scoring the goals but it’s a team sport and if I haven’t got the lads behind me giving me the opportunities I would never have got to the goals I’ve got to.

“That’s 20 goals ticked off now and hopefully it’s going to be 25. There are still a few games left so hopefully I can score a few more.

“As a striker I’m never happy. I always want to strive and better myself and go one more. I need to set a target now where no-one’s going to catch me for another 20 years.”

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After Charles had notched his 16th league goal of the campaign with a typically predatory finish, Wanderers dug in to keep a 20th clean sheet of the season as a 1-0 victory at Oxford and second successive away win lifted them to fifth place in the League One table.

Evatt’s side is on the road again on Tuesday night with a trip to in-form Burton Albion and Charles knows it will need another gritty performance to keep edging closer to a top-six finish and a place in the play-offs.

“The main thing is we got the three points, so I’m delighted,” he added.

“That was a great fighting performance from everyone – the lads that started, the boys that came on. We made it difficult at times but we got over the line.

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“We’ve got a target of getting in the play-offs. We’ll take it game by game and we’ll always fight hard like that in every game we play to try and cement our place and hopefully we’ll have another trip to Wembley.

“It’s another massive game on Tuesday and it’s another one we need to win. We can’t take our foot off the gas.

“It’s never an easy game in League One. Every is always at it and everyone has points to prove. You might be playing against teams trying to go up and lads who are playing for their careers. Fortunately for us, we’re at the right end of it.”

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