AFC Wimbledon v Charlton Athletic
Saturday 23rd February 2019 ... 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Christopher Kavanagh (Lancashire)
Introduction
After two weeks at the Valley its time for the Addicks to return to the road as they search for those elusive three points that have been denied to us in recent games - Draws against Southend and Blackpool have enabled those below us to make up ground so its imperative that we return to winning ways and fast if we want to prolong our season into the depths of May... This Saturday its a short trip across South London for a derby of sorts; AFC Wimbledon await!!
The Opposition
Name: AFC Wimbledon |
Manager: Wally Downes
Ground: Kingsmeadow
Out of the first twenty three games played I doubt there will be many who argue that the Wombles have been the worst of those that we've faced - Up against the ten men of the Addicks for the best part of half an hour, it would be Charlton who would always look the better side and despite the winning goals coming in the last thirty minutes (when the playing field was once again levelled) it was only ever a matter of time when those goals would come!!
Since that day and you have to question why and how AFC Wimbledon are down where they are... Everyone knows that they've one of the smallest budgets in League One yet as Accrington Stanley have proven at times; Budgets dont count for everything.
Their performances in the FA Cup (despite limping past Harrigny Borough in the 1st Round) have impressed people up and down the country and were unlucky to lose another South London Derby on the weekend, bowing out just before the Quarter-Final stages... Yet there are signs that they could make the great escape; ex-Academy graduate: Joe Pigott scoring a 95th minute hat-trick in midweek against Rochdale would see Wimbledon recording back to back wins for the second time this season, they've not won three on the trot so lets oblige them with that honour!!
Charlton Team News
Last Saturday saw the welcome return of Joe Aribo to the team and so confirmed that the physios room has reduced to just three players... In his weekly press conference Lee Bowyer confirmed that there was no timescale on the return of Lewis Page (which is sad to hear) whilst Jake Forster-Caskey could make an appearance before the end of the season which would be an extremely impressive feat for a player ruled out for the campaign before a ball was even kicked.
In regards to the rest of the squad; depending on your views there was the surprising / unsurprising absence of Tariqe Fosu in the team last week - You'd hope that his exclusion is the kick the player needs to discover some kind of form when we need him most... Lyle Taylor will no doubt lead the attack yet will be treading egg shells as one more yellow will see him missing the next two games which will be crucial to our Play-Off hopes... we'll have to wait and see if its Josh Parker or Igor Vetokele who partners him.
Phillips
Solly | Bauer | Sarr | Purrington
Williams | Cullen | Aribo
Fosu
Taylor | Vetokele
Substitutes Bench: Maxwell | Dijksteel | Pratley | Lapslie | Marshall | Reeves | Parker
Prediction
As already mentioned, there are two cases to argue that a win is must needed regardless of who we face tomorrow - Firstly Doncaster are breathing down our neck and with two games in hand we cannot give them a helping hand in closing that gap; secondly we face both Doncaster and Portsmouth next two games so we're at a stage of the season that could make or break our season
Thankfully we travel to a ground where we have yet to win in either a League or Cup encounter!!
