Post Hammers: Chuck backed

Following a week where comments angling for a move seemed to eminate from the N'Zogbia camp daily, it was no surprise to see the France under 21 player dropped to the bench. However his subsequent performance after coming on dispelled a few doubts and showed we can still rely on him whilst he plays in black and white. Chris Hughton noted this and quipped:

"One thing that becomes difficult these days is agents, but we`ve spoken to Charles, and he knows he is an important player to us. The most important thing is that when you make a substitution, that he can have an impact on the game, and I thought he did. We needed to push players from midfield. When Geremi came off it wasn`t a question of him playing poorly, but we needed more offensive runs from midfield, and Charles is able to do that.

He picked up a dead leg at Hull last week. He hadn`t trained all week, and if we`d have started him, and he`d have got a knock on what was a week`s injury, it could have turned into a two-week injury. We couldn`t take the chance with him at this particular moment. We always felt he would have to come on, but we were also aware we`ve got another game on Wednesday."

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