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Town Out to End Home Run on High Note Against Charlton
Friday, 27th Nov 2020 14:00

Town will be out to end their run of three back-to-back home games on a winning note when sixth-placed Charlton visit Portman Road on Saturday.

The Blues defeated Shrewsbury 2-1 last Saturday, although far from convincingly, before being comfortably beaten 3-0 by leaders Hull City on Tuesday, the first points they had dropped at Portman Road this season. Tough-looking away trips to Oxford and Plymouth follow in the next week.

The Addicks, relegated from the Championship last season after one season back in the second tier, have made a positive start on their return to League One, however, were beaten 4-2 at Burton in midweek.

Prior to that match, the South Londoners had gone eight games without a League One defeat, which included a six-match winning streak. Charlton are one place and two points behind the Blues having played a game fewer.

Town will again be looking to win against one of the teams in the division’s higher reaches, with ninth-placed Accrington the only team in the top 10 they have beaten this season having overcome only two of the 10 sides who finished above them - Gillingham and Fleetwood, who they both defeated 1-0 away - during 2019/20.

“It’ll be a tough game,” manager Paul Lambert said when asked what he expected from the Addicks.

“I know they lost to Burton, but there you go. Who expected Charlton to lose at Burton, but it happens.

“The league is tough. [Addicks manager] Lee [Bowyer] has done really well taking them up and it’s an unforgiving league the Championship, a really hard, hard league.

“And then you find yourself back down in League One and people want to beat you and people think you’re one of the favourites to go back up — all those sorts of things come into it. But Lee has done a good job there.”

Lambert may want to make changes following Tuesday’s defeat to Hull but in some areas his options are very limited with the injury list having increased over the last couple of games with Teddy Bishop (ankle), Jon Nolan (groin) and Freddie Sears (hamstring) having joined the likes of Gwion Edwards (hamstring), James Wilson (knee), Cole Skuse, Flynn Downes (both knee), Kane Vincent-Young (achilles), Ben Morris (knee) and Tristan Nydam (ankle) on the sidelines.

Tomas Holy will be in goal with the back four again probably, from the right, skipper Luke Chambers, Luke Woolfenden, Mark McGuinness and Stephen Ward.

In midfield, Andre Dozzell is back from his three-match ban and looks set to replace Brett McGavin with Emyr Huws and Alan Judge the other two members of the trio.

Lambert was impressed with James Norwood’s performance against Hull and the former Tranmere man looks set to continue as the lone central striker with Keanan Bennetts hoping he did enough to keep a place on one flank, probably the left, and Jack Lankester perhaps returning to the starting line-up on the right.


Charlton manager Lee Bowyer says captain Jason Pearce (calf) and fellow centre-half Deji Oshilaja (foot) aren’t ready to start against the Blues having been unused subs at Burton.

With fellow Akin Famewo (hamstring) and Ryan Inniss (quad) also out, they appear likely to be forced to start right-back Chris Gunter and midfielder Darren Pratley as their central defensive pairing, as they did on Tuesday.

However, Bowyer isn’t particularly concerned as he was pleased with their performances against the Brewers.

“Prats and Gunter didn’t do badly the other night when you take away the first goal [which came as the result of a Gunter error]. If you take the goals out of the equation — which were freak, freak mistakes — they didn’t do bad,” he told London News Online.

“That’s not really my worry. If I have to play them two I’m not worried about it because they did well as a partnership.”

Reflecting on Tuesday’s defeat, he added: “We moved the ball too slowly and we were sloppy in possession. I’m not using the pitch as an excuse because it was the same for both teams.

“The first half hour, in particular, wasn’t good. I didn’t see that result coming and sometimes you need things like that to happen to make everyone come back to reality. We have to work hard for it, you can’t just turn up and expect to win games.

“In the second half we improved but we gave them four goals. The third goal we gave the corner away, we were sloppy with the ball back to the keeper. We’ll get a reaction, I’m sure, at Ipswich. It’s a tough game and we have to be ready for that.”

Town just have the edge historically having won 23 games (19 in the league), Charlton 18 (15) and with 11 (10) ending in draws. The Blues are unbeaten in seven games against the Addicks home and away, winning five of them.

The teams last met in competitive action in April 2016 when a 0-0 draw at Portman Road all but ended Town’s play-off push with the Addicks on their way to relegation from the Championship.

Ben Pringle came closest for the Blues in the first half with a strike well saved by Charlton keeper Nick Pope, while Jonathan Douglas headed and then shot over in the second.

In the previous November, Daryl Murphy scored twice and Freddie Sears once as the Blues comfortably beat Charlton 3-0 to record their fourth successive victory at The Valley.

Murphy put Town in front in the 28th minute, Sears added the second just before half-time and the Irish international sealed the three points on 68.

More recently, the teams met in a pre-season friendly at the Valley ahead of the 2017/18 campaign in which the Addicks, then a division below the Championship Blues, ran out 6-1 winners.

Patrick Bauer, Tariqe Fosu and Josh Magennis (2) put the Addicks 4-0 up at half-time before two Ricky Holmes strikes sandwiched Dozzell’s solitary goal for Town.

Charlton boss Bowyer spent the 2011/12 season with the Blues, scoring twice in 24 starts and five sub appearances.

Bowyer’s squad includes four-time Town loanee Jonny Williams, who made 16 starts and 12 sub appearances across his spells at Portman Road, also scoring two goals.

Addicks central defender Luca Vega came through the academy at Portman Road having joined the club at seven before being released in the summer of 2019 when he signed a professional deal at the Valley after a trial. So far Vega’s only first team appearance was in the Papa John’s Trophy earlier this season and he is currently injured.

Centre-half Oshilaja came very close to joining the Blues in the summer of 2018 from AFC Wimbledon.

The former Dons skipper, who signed for the Addicks in July 2019, was at Portman Road to complete the deadline day deal only for the clubs to be unable to agree a fee. Midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey is the stepson of ex-Blues striker Nicky Forster.

Saturday’s referee is Craig Hicks from Surrey, who has shown 40 yellow cards and two red in 14 matches so far this season.

Hicks’s last Town game was the 2-0 win at Bristol Rovers in September in which he yellow-carded Edwards, Norwood and two home players.

Prior to that he was in charge of the 0-0 draw at AFC Wimbledon last season in which he booked Downes and one home player.

Before that he refereed another 0-0 draw, at home to Gillingham on Boxing Day last year in which he showed yellow cards to Toto Nsiala, Edwards, Judge and Norwood.

Hicks’s first competitive Town match was the Leasing.com Trophy tie with Tottenham’s U21s in September last year in which he showed just the one yellow card to one of the visitors.

He also took charge of Town’s July 2017 pre-season friendly against Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium, which the home side won 2-1.

The Kent side, who had current Blues keeper Holy in goal, went in front via a soft penalty awarded by Hicks, who kept his cards in his pocket throughout, won by ex-Town midfielder Lee Martin following a challenge by Blues captain Chambers and converted by Tom Eaves.

Squad from: Holy, Cornell, Chambers (c), Donacien, Ward, Kenlock, McGuinness, Woolfenden, Nsiala, Dozzell, McGavin, Huws, Judge, Lankester, Bennetts, Dobra, Hawkins, Jackson, Norwood, Drinan.


Photo: TWTD



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ArnieM added 14:28 - Nov 27
sadly I think well be out of the top 6 by tea time tomorrow. But PL can hide behind the ever increasing injury list cant he .
4

Portman_Pie added 14:38 - Nov 27
I'm not his greatest admirer - but surely Jackson needs to start tomorrow. With a CB pairing for Charlton of Pratley (Who has to be one of the slowest players in this league - not to mention a midfielder) and Chris Gunter who is an older RB - we should be looking tactically to exploit them. I know Lambert doesn't do tactics - and its 4-3-3 guaranteed - but i'd go 2 x CF's and have Norwood & Jackson up top in a 4-4-2

Holy
Chambers
Wolfenden
McGuiness
Ward
Lankester
Huws
Dozzell
Bennets
Norwood
Jackson
11

Skip73 added 14:50 - Nov 27
Headline Monday Nov 30th. The lads are hurting....we go again etc.
9

DifferentGravy added 14:51 - Nov 27
Its 4-5-1. The distinct lack of chances/crosses created, wide men tracking deep to defend and Freddy being out of his natural position would evidence this.

Fine if he wants to feel his way into the game with a 4-5-1.....but Lambert has to be flexible with tactics/formation if its not working. Two up front could really pay dividends.

Anyone know what the deal is with Wilson? Thought he was playing well and would prefer to see him start than McGuiness.... who will no doubt improve with age and eradicate the regularity of mistakes


0

BettyBlue added 15:00 - Nov 27
Wilson is helping his Mum with Stir Up Saturday.
0

Michael101 added 15:25 - Nov 27
Blow up betty,Wilson has a knee injury, I have just read the sears post ,soon have more players on the treatment table than on the pitch.
1

Nobbysnuts added 15:37 - Nov 27
Portman pie.... totally agree with that team 👍👍👍 but somehow I don't think shambo will.....
0

Portman_Pie added 15:48 - Nov 27
You never know Nobbysnuts.. I'm a firm believer that Shambert regularly looks on here - and makes a lot of his decisions based on the preferred notions going on. Several times there have been calls for certain players to play above others - and it happens.

We all know how Shambert lacks any tactical no-how - so he'll be looking to glean info from somewhere on here. Fingers crossed
-6

shortmarine1969 added 15:53 - Nov 27
Just hoping we dont get the same weak insiped non threatening football we have for the last few games - all this "we dominated" is pure flannel we have just fannied around in our own defensive third , that is not dominating ahything -if we do get more of the same with a slow innefcetvie 4,3,3 (4,5,1 the way we play) PL is not going to be doing himself any favours - we injuires and our lack of threat go 4,4,2 - if they cant play that then that is nobody but the "coaches" fault.
2

Ebantiass added 16:14 - Nov 27
We HAVE to go two up front. Judge is too slow to play winger or in a versetile midfield three. Good to get Dozzell back. 1-1 draw i fear.
2

Ipswichbusiness added 16:37 - Nov 27
I was watching the 78 Cup Final on YouTube yesterday.

The formation was 4-3-3, but with a winger (Woods) on one side and a striker (Geddis) played out wide on the other. You could call it 4-5-1. It might be the way that Lambert wants to play.

However, there were some important differences. For example, we worked as a team. Also, we had Paul Mariner to work over the Arsenal centre-backs and John Wark to come up from midfield.
0

EatonBlue added 17:21 - Nov 27
I agree with Portman Pie's selection except that I would prefer Hawkins to Norwood.
-2

ringwoodblue added 18:34 - Nov 27
Meanwhile in the Charlton training session, Lee Bowyer says:
‘Well guys I know we got beat by the bottom club on Tue but the good news is we have Ipswich on Sat'
(Massive cheer from the team)
‘They are suspect at the back, lightweight in midfield and toothless up front so all we need to do is turn up, let them have most of the possession and then nick a goal or two and the three points is ours! Simples!'
7

BettyBlue added 18:51 - Nov 27
ITFC 1 Charlton 4
what do you think Michael10010101000110?
-4

BettyBlue added 18:53 - Nov 27
Really missing Skuse this season.
0

ringwoodblue added 19:04 - Nov 27
Agree with PortmanPie's team except I'd pick McGavin instead of Huws and Toto instead of McGuinness
-1

dirtydingusmagee added 19:23 - Nov 27
mid table by Christmas , mark me down thats ok , i'll accept appology when time comes .
1

Help added 19:32 - Nov 27
Okay so two teams that lost on Tuesday one to the team top of the league the other to the team then bottom of the league. In all honesty which one do you think will bounce back, take the bull by the horns and win. Which manager and players have the desire, ability and tactical awareness to beat the opposition. Lets just say I predicted the 3 Nil defeat on Tuesday and I have not put Town down for a win tomorrow. I hope I am wrong and that I do not end up climbing the prediction league again saturday evening.
1

Michael101 added 20:51 - Nov 27
Betty ,ever the optermist do you honestly think we will score one.
2

Blueballs83 added 21:28 - Nov 27
Same as @Portmans_pie's line up. 442 with 2 quick wingers and 2 strikers! But will he?!?
0

gosblue added 23:03 - Nov 27
Portman Pie
I like the look of your line up although I don't think Huws has shown enough to merit a start, whereas McGavin has been impressive. He could be the next Matt Holland (hopefully for us). I'd take a point right now but I'm not sure we'll get anything. I hope I'm wrong. COYB
0

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 06:25 - Nov 28
Good line-up PP. I'm predicting a draw, which won't really satisfy anyone.
0

BettyBlue added 08:56 - Nov 28
Swedish Steve: If a draw won't suit anyone lets give it to Charlton.
{probably with a Nisala penalty)
-2

BettyBlue added 09:25 - Nov 28
Town's Promotion Hopes to End With a Heavy Defeat Against Charlton
-2

norfolkbluey added 10:06 - Nov 28
If we don't beat Charlton today you can be sure of an avalanche of calls for PL's demise!
Can't say I won't disagree but its beginning to look like a frosty December for PL.
0


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