MARK'S A VILLAIN: Captain Mark Kinsella has made a shock move to Premiership rivals Aston Villa for £1m.

The 30-year-old Irishman made 226 appearances for the Addicks, scoring 23 goals, since signing from Colchester for £250,000 in 1996, and is the club's most-capped international of all time with 33, but injuries restricted him to just 18 games last season.

MIS-FORTUNE: Defender Jon Fortune lasted less than 10 minutes of last Wednesday night's reserve 2-1 defeat against Leicester City at The Valley before being stretchered off to receive 10 stitches in a nasty leg wound. Japan star Alex, who spent the week training with the club, watched the recovering Shaun Bartlett net a 36th-minute opener.

TICKET TIME: Tickets for the matches against Aston Villa on September 11 and Arsenal three days later went on sale yesterday. Season-ticket holders can also now buy any remaining seats for the trip to West Ham on Saturday, priced £26 adults, £15 seniors and £10 U16s. Almost 3,000 Villa tickets are now on general sale, priced £22 adults and £11 seniors and U16s, while seats for Arsenal will initially be available to Valley Gold members, CAPS members and season-ticket holders, priced £30 adults, £25 seniors and £20 U16s.

RED MAGIC: Manchester United's stars of the future are the visitors on Friday night at The Valley, when the public are welcome to watch Charlton's U19s take their Red Devils counterparts at 7.30pm. The U17s also play Manchester United on the same day, at 3pm at the club's New Eltham training ground.

GREG'S AIM: Greg Sharland has set himself the target of playing for the first team despite only signing professional forms last week.

The 19-year-old Australian forward said: "There are lots of strikers here and they are all good players but you have to have targets mine is to play for the first team."