Coventry City v Charlton Athletic
Boxing Day … 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
IntroductionSo that’s it we’re done, all twenty three opponents have been faced in League One this season and you cant argue that we’ve not seen some cracking games of Football so far this year!!... Saturdays game saw the Addicks signing off 2018 at the Valley with a workman like performance where they showed up, got the goals through Ben Reeves and Tariqe Fosu and went home – Yet that’s the approach you need to take at this time of year, we’re now into the Christmas period, the games will come thick and fast, it’s a time of year that can quite easily either break or make your aspirations for the following May!!
The OppositionName: Coventry City |
Manager: Mark Robins
Ground: Ricoh Arena
What do you do when you’ve faced all twenty three teams in the Division? – Well you go back and do it all over again of course!!... It all begins on Boxing Day with a trip up the M6 to Coventry City – For our opponents it’s been a mixed first half of the season; the Sky Blues at present find themselves in 14th place, it’s a section of the table they’ve found themselves in for the majority of the season in what is their first return from League Two.
Their best phase of the season began (ironically) at the Valley; a 2-1 win at the start of October wasn’t just part of a poor run for the Addicks yet also the beginning of a good run for Coventry; they would go on to win their next five matches and so climb albeit briefly into the Play-Offs… Sadly for their fans though they’ve had nothing to cheer about since October and have only managed to pick up two draws in the last seven games, and with the last four all ending in defeat (including a 1-0 loss at Shrewsbury on the weekend) it means that our opponents wont just be eager to record a double over Charlton on Wednesday yet also stop the slump!!
But this is Boxing Day Football, its not a stage of the calendar that goes to the inform team yet the side who appears to have enjoyed the least amount of turkey – For Coventry this isnt the most favourable of dates, they’ve just the two wins in the last five years on this date, losing 1-0 to Port Vale on this date last year!!
Charlton Team NewsFor the Addicks the prospect of Boxing Day is a little better… Their embarrassing performance at Southend last season (3-1) was the first defeat on this day in the last five years so could be a chance for the winning run to continue.
Unfortunately though the revolving door of injuries appears to continue over the festive period… The latest problem coming in the form of Joe Aribo, the energetic midfielder would depart midway through the second half on Saturday and could be a doubt for the clash with Coventry; thankfully his replacement was the experienced Darren Pratley (himself back from injury) so youth shouldn’t be relied upon too much as the recently impressive: George Lapslie (concussion) and Jamie Ward should also be fit enough to return to the bench.
With regards to our Strikers we saw Lyle Taylor exiting against Gillingham yet with him struggling through illness you’d expect him to still be in the line up, whilst his partner up front will no doubt be Nicky Ajose… With Karlan Grant still recovering from his slight hamstring issue, you’d think that he’d be saved for the bigger battles to come in the next few weeks.
Steer
Dijksteel | Bauer | Pearce | Solly
Pratley | Bielik | Reeves
Fosu
Taylor | Ajose
Substitutes Bench: Phillips | Stevenson | Morgan | Lapslie | Ward | Clarke | Marshall
PredictionCoventry weren’t the best side to visit the Valley in October and their achievement in getting the three points was more luck than outplaying the Addicks so you’d expect something similar this week – The Sky Blues are on a poor run of form whilst Lee Bowyer’s men just appear to be shrugging the opposition aside, it might not be as easy as we think though with players potentially looking to be fresh for the difficult Barnsley clash on Saturday!!
As the last Preview prior... I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, have a great day, hope you all get what you want, enjoy your food / drink but hope everyone stays safe - For those making the trip up to Coventry have a great trip and hopefully we'll return with all three points!!!
Comments
3.1 Charlton and our push for automatic promotion continues.
2-0 Charlton
Cov on the naughty list
Coventry 3 - 5 Charlton
Five different scorers, penalties, Coventry red card.
Only downside two more injuries.
Has that EVER happened?
1-3 to the Addicks
I have a positive feeling that this will be the match when everything clicks and we dish out a spanking.
I believe he carried on for another 20 minutes but not sure on the timeline.
Let's hope it just bruising because the inability to get through matches without an injury is the biggest obstacle to cafc finishing in the top 6 or even top 2 !
I can see Bowyer making a couple of changes, freshen things up a bit with the heavy schedule we have. Marshall could come in, as could Pratley, I also think we may see a change in defence, Solly could be rested for Barnsley game in mind. I don’t think Aribo will be risked if he has a sore knee, he’ll be back for Barnsley. I’d love to see Clarke back in the squad but without being included so far, personally I’d be surprised if he is on Boxing Day.
Dijksteel Bauer Pearce Stevenson
Bielik
Reeves Pratley
Fosu
Taylor Ajose
Phillips, Solly, Lapslie, Marshall, Ward, Grant, Hackett-Fairchild
Coventry City 1-2 Charlton Athletic
Taylor x2
Great win for us today. Can go into Christmas period on a high and look to keep it up. Have a good Christmas everyone and see you all on Boxing Day. Enjoy family time and be happy! #cafc
So hopefully means that he's going to be involved
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see us change it slightly as well with 3-4-1-2 with Marshall coming in at right wing back.
All of sudden, the bench looks strong, that’s without even including Aribo, that’s without Page hopefully back at the beginning of 2019, Cullen not too far behind. Hopefully things start to fall in place a bit now.
I understand why he didnt want to do it when we didnt have all four Centre-Backs fit as had one been injured then we wouldnt have had someone to come into the back but now they're all fit (just one suspended) it'll surely be worth trying again?
Coventry City 1 v CAFC 3
However we messed up at The Valley against this lot in the most frustrating way so if we can somehow nick a win it will go a long way towards obviating that.
Thanks.
However if Djiksteel, Bauer, Pearce and Solly are on their game we have a chance.
👉 https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5c1e243304189/buy-on-boxing-day-at-coventry-city … #cafc
“Hopefully Joe will be ok. He said his knee is really sore and so fingers crossed Joe will be alright. The last thing we want to do is lose another midfielder.
“Lyle came off, he’s ill, he’ll be alright though.”
Oh what fun it is to see the Charlton win away
2-1 to the Addicks