It's more than 18 years since I was first spotted by Gillingham playing for Horley Town but I’m not ready to give up the game just yet.

When you’re 36, and clearly nearer the end of your career than the start, you can’t avoid questions about when you are going to hang up your boots.

The answer is that I don’t know. But then football is full of surprises. For example, at the start of the season I never expected to currently be playing for Charlton, although I’m delighted at the way things have turned out.

I was enjoying my time at Brighton and was looking forward to having a successful season and extending my time there but when it became clear nothing was happening regarding a new contract, I asked if I could look at options elsewhere.

As soon as Charlton became interested, that was my preferred option. We’re going for promotion and I’m going to put all my effort into the last four – maybe seven – games.

People have also asked me about potentially extending my stay at Charlton into next season but first we must focus on getting into the Championship.

I’m at the club to get goals, I know that. Finishing is one of my strengths, so hopefully I can play my part in securing promotion.

Before Tuesday night’s match against Colchester, we hadn’t been scoring a lot of goals but you only need one to win a game, as we proved against MK Dons and Carlisle over Easter.

We didn’t take full advantage of a few chances against Carlisle but these things happen sometimes and thankfully it didn’t affect the result.

Jonjo Shelvey missed a couple and was a bit upset after the match but experience goes a long way in football and he’s still only young.

I spoke to him and said the most important thing was that he shouldn’t let himself get too down about it.

The best strikers in the world miss chances – and good chances as well. As long as he puts himself back there in that position again and has another go, he’ll learn from it and become an even better player.

Ultimately, as long as the team wins, nothing else matters.