Lincoln City vs Charlton AthleticSaturday 16th October 2021 - 3pm Kick-OffReferee: David WebbIntroductionYou have to hate International breaks in some respect dont you?
We're all aware of our poor start to the season, yet back in September things started to look as though they might be clicking when we finally achieved our first league win with a 2-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra, before beating Crawley Town in the EFL Trophy, unfortunately we all know what happened next, our form was stalled by the break and we had to witness that defeat at the hands of Cheltenham Town - Fast forward a month and we could well be thinking its a case of deja vu... We finally won our second game of the season, coming in the North West at Fleetwood Town, before again, comfortably beating Southampton U21s in the EFL Trophy.
We return to League action this Saturday, the Addicks travel North once more to face Lincoln City.
We all hope for an Imp-ressive display once again for the travelling faithful.
The OppositionName: Lincoln City (17th) |
Manager: Michael Appleton
Ground: Sincil Bank
Previous Meeting: Charlton Athletic 3-1 Lincoln City
As we witnessed with Shrewsbury Town a few years ago, many teams at this level can throw a spanner in the works and surprise all by challenging at the end of the table where they're not quite expected to - Last saw we saw Lincoln using the loan market to great effect by bringing in the likes of Brennan Johnson (Nottingham Forest) and Morgan Rogers (Manchester City) to get amongst the heavyweights in this Division. Michael Appleton and his men coming within 90minutes of the Championship, a level they've not been at since 1960; Blackpool though were unstoppable in 2021 and deserved their win at Wembley.
This season and things havent gone quite right from the very beginning; Michael Appleton was diagnosed with cancer (although has since had a successful operation), whilst star names such as Jorge Grant and Tayo Edun have at least made the jump to the second tier themselves... Results have been inconsistent, and a win for the Addicks this coming Saturday will see us drawing level on points with the Imps.
Transfer business itself was steady for our opponents this summer, six players out, six players in, including the experienced Chris Maguire (signed on a free transfer from Sunderland) - Loans have been brought in too; Josh Griffiths the standout, and another promising young Goalkeeper from West Bromwich Albion.
Charlton Team News
Given there has been an International break with Charlton players off either in Europe or Asia, we have to presume that all have returned with a clean bill of health. As a result the squad line-up could remain a challenging decision for Nigel Adkins this weekend, does he stick with exactly the same team that defeated Fleetwood Town last time out, or does he replace those who will have been away.
If the latter is the case then we'd surely expect to see the likes of Adam Matthews (in for Chris Gunter) and Ben Watson (in for Harry Arter) - We could also see Jayden Stockley back in the line up, fresh from scoring twice against Southampton U21s in the EFL Trophy.
MacGillivray
Matthews - Lavelle - Famewo - Purrington
Watson - Gilbey
Lee
Leko - Stockley - Kirk
Substitutes Bench: Henderson - Pearce - Souare - Morgan - Clare - Davison - Blackett-Taylor
Prediction
There have of course been many calls for Nigel Adkins to depart, yet the challenge in front of him is simple... Win games and those calls will no doubt become quieter and quieter, after all Football fans have always primarily been a fickle group - The defeat against Bolton was frustrating given the scoreline, but we've seen from that game (and the Fleetwood one that followed), that there are signs of this team clicking - With a lot of Football to be played we shouldnt give up on any hopes of the Play-Off, but to truly achieve that we need to start having a settled squad with minimal changes each week where possible.
Comments
Pretty much the team I would expect, though for me Dobson has to start instead of Watson (not sure if that will happen), and I wouldn’t be shocked to see Souare start.
I'm going to this so I'm hoping for a decent performance and three points.
If we are serious about climbing this league and challenging the top six then we have to keep winning.
No more excuses. Just win.
Strangely confident about this one but looking forward to it all the same!
1-0 Charlton - CBT for his first in Charlton shirt.
My prediction is a 2-0 win with Nigel putting out the following side, which will be ridiculed:
Matthews - Lavelle - Famewo - Souare
Clare - Arter - Gilbey
Lee - Stockley - B.Taylor
Subs: Hendo, Pearcey, Purrington, Watson, Leko, Davison, Washington
The result, Lincoln 2 Charlton 1
International breaks, hate them.
Davison wont start ahead of Kirk he's not a wide player
I also think that minimal changes will be made from the Fleetwood game with only those away on International Duty not starting (because they've not been part of pre-Lincoln preparations for long enough), hence why Kirk starts again.
My squad would be the exact same as the one that started against Fleetwood... think the likes of Kirk need a chance to put a run of games together, we need consistency with results and that comes from having a settled team.
As in they set up to do it and were very good at it. The team was obviously put together to play it. Even big Sam, big Mick and not so big Tony's teams didn't really play long ball.
Long ball and hoof ball have just become an anology for being a bit shit. I have never seen a Charlton team set up to play like that, I have seen 100s of Charlton teams default to it through lack of confidence and ability though. Under every manager in my life time.
Stockley should have to wait his turn to get his place back in the team.
As the midfield, especially Dobson, crumbled before our eyes it started to become long balls in the general direction of Stockley then became wild hacks and hope for the best.
Lincoln have an extremely dynamic and flexible front 3. Scully has 11 so far this season, Adelakun is unpredictable can play across the front 3, and Maguire is a good signing at this level.
I don’t want Matthews starting here as Scully will cut in on his right all the time and you’ll have runners off him. It may be something they have debriefed and worked on, but history tells us that Scully will have much joy on Saturday.
It’s a big game where we need to continue momentum from before and 3 points gets us level with Lincoln so we either are climbing the league or dragging others into our position, whatever way you want to look at it.
MacGillivray
Gunter Lavelle Famewo Souare
Arter Gilbey
Leko Lee Kirk
Stockley
Henderson, Pearce, Purrington, Clare, Blackett-Taylor, Washington, Davison
Lincoln 1-2 Charlton
Kirk
Lee
Or
Not kick in the nuts?
1-1
What does Scully have 11 of?