Fleetwood Town v Charlton Athletic
Saturday 20th February 2021 ... 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Carl Boyeson
Introduction
Charlton will be looking to bounce back from yet another home defeat after losing 3-2 at Gillingham last Saturday.
They travel to the North West of England this weekend with the third best away record in the division. If you want promotion though both your home and away records need to be in sync and its pretty obvious that time is running out a bit too fast for that to suddenly turn around in what has been a season that has clearly lacked consistency; Fleetwood Town are the opponents this weekend, three points could stop this season from being all over, even at this early stage, even then it may not be enough.
The Opposition
Name: Fleetwood Town (15th) | Manager: Simon Grayson
Ground: Highbury Stadium
Previous Meeting: Charlton Athletic 3-2 Fleetwood Town
Nine clubs in this division, each of which have spent time in the National League dating back twenty years to when Charlton Athletic were enjoying the fruits of Premier League football, two of whom entered the Football League as young sides where they have remained ever since, so their encounters with the Addicks have been few and far between.
Fleetwood Town are one of those, a bit like Accrington Stanley down the road they've been formed on four different occasions, 1997 the most recent, unlike their Lancashire rivals this is only the current version of the club that have enjoyed life in the top four tiers of English Football, promotion to League Two was achieved in 2012 (the same season Chris Powell made history in SE7) and after two seasons in League Two were be promoted to League One where they've remained ever since. As a result there have only been a handful of match ups between these two sides, most of those ending in drab draws apart from three games which has seen a victor, the Addicks coming out on top more often.
If you have to pick out one player that has enjoyed this particular fixture its Ched Evans, scored the winner in Fleetwood's only ever win against Charlton, and came close to a remarkable turn around after the Cod Army were dead and buried at the Valley, scoring two goals in quick succession... Thankfully both Evans and Barton have now departed Highbury with Simon Grayson (no stranger to that part of the world) now in charge, yet its been a sluggish start for Grayson with just six point obtained from a possible twenty four.
Of course there is always a health warning with these previews...
Grayson's sole win with Fleetwood came against Doncaster Rovers with the home side winning 3-1 on that particular occasion!!
Charlton Team News
Unfortunately there is potentially more to discuss this week compared with last; Firstly Akin Famewo has played in yet another U23 game as he steps up his return to fitness, a young Charlton side ultimately lost 4-3 at Princes Park to Swansea City with Albie Morgan and Alex Gilbey getting some additional game time. Elsewhere and Ryan Inniss appears to have stepped up his return to action having had a positive outcome on his latest scan - Jake Forster-Caskey was withdrawn against Gillingham last Saturday after struggling with a hamstring problem in training so could equally miss out this weekend.
Chuks Aneke will of course miss the fixture this weekend having been sent off last time out, you'd expect Ronnie Schwartz to deputise ahead of the top scorer, although Conor Washington is equally back in training now so could push for a first start since being withdrawn at Milton Keynes.
Amos
Gunter | Oshilaja | Pearce | Purrington
Jaiyesimi | Pratley | Shinnie | Millar
Washington | Stockley
Substitutes Bench: Maynard-Brewer | Maatsen | Matthews | Morgan | Smith | Schwartz | Watson
Prediction
As we slowly edge closer to the end of the season it looks more and more likely as though we'll be playing League One Football this time next season. If that is the case then you could argue that we should at the very least ensure that we go into next season with as much confidence and as many wins as possible. With a cloud hanging over both players and now the manager we could well be heading towards another period of uncertainty and rebuilding regardless of who is in what roles!!
Comments
Has already taken charge of one Charlton game this season, that match coming at Portsmouth which saw four yellow cards being dished out (three to Charlton) with the Addicks running out 2-0 winners - He's taken charge of eighteen games in total this season with those games being a mixture of League One, League Two and cup games.
A total of 62-cards have been handed out by Boyeson, has yet to send any player off and has awarded three penalties
Statbank Performance from the Portsmouth game: 5.42
I haven't finished being fecked off with the last game, let alone "looking forward" to another
We have a flat 2-man central midfield with space in front of them and space in behind. In the 4-2-3-1, they'd have 2 ball-playing DMs in front of them, and either a CM to mark or an AM playing in behind. We'd be stretched and they'd have the options to play through us.
Meanwhile Chuks Aneke's enforced absence will at least give him time to recover from getting puffed out.
Have any more of our poor loves got a note from their mum to be excused?
They did however beat Doncaster 3-1 the other day.
I see this being another chance for a Desmond in my head, but my heart says another 2-0 win.
Washington & Schwartz to score.
Matthews - Gunter - Oshilaja - Purrington
Jaiyesimi - Shinnie - Pratley - Millar
Stockley - Washington
Subs: M.Brewer, Maatsen, Pearce, Morgan, Smith, Gilbey, Schwartz.
Excluding that as a factor, there must be a temptation to go 433/451 and give the back 4 some proper protection?
I am not saying this is the team I would pick or the team I think he will pick, file it under "I wouldn't be surprised to see":
Amos
Gunter Oshilaja Pearce Purrington
Shinnie Pratley Watson
DJ. Millar
Stockley
I wanted to start Washington and Schwartz, but don't know if Stockley would do the Aneke coming on late and dominating. He certainly can do the winning the ball bit and Washington will operate better off his shoulder when still full of beans.
2-0
Shinnie and Stockley.
Lee comes out and states how the oppo play in a certain way, but fails to overcome them and loses the mind games to that odious fat cnut.
We are playing well in patches and putting moves together moves that are better than anything our opponents do and yet we seem incapable of stopping them waltz through us at will and/or scoring cheap goals the like of which are never handed to us.
Lee said earlier in the season that he wasn't bothered if we let the oppo shoot from distance. How many more "worldies" must we concede before we rethink that one?
Whenever I start to believe our form is turning around we contrive to lose football matches.
I could do with having somebody with more analytical insight; Sage, Scoham, anybody?, to tell me how we are gonna turn this around.
I'm starting to think that if Millar gets injured we'll struggle to stay top half
comfortable 0-2 my team gets
Amos
Gunter Oshilaja Pearce Maatsen
Pratley Watson
Jaiyesimi Shinnie Millar
Stockley
No one fancying Famewo to start?
In reality we're achieving 1.54 PPG so could scrape 70/71 points
In the past 5 full seasons, that was enough points on just two occasions to make the playoffs. (We were one of those)
I've no idea how this game will go, we're too inconsistent.
How do you see this working in practice (genuine question, just assume I'm thick)
Surely that would sacrifice width and encourage them to float around hoping to win second balls from hoofs up to Stockley
I'd still be interested in how he see's the formation working