In a season which has veered from optimism to near despair in a few months the only consolation has been the performances of the reserves in the silly cups, and the youth teams in their leagues. Garner has said that nobody who started on saturday will start tonight so we will see a mixture of reserves and youth team players.
My guess is that we will look something like this:
MacGillvray
Clare, Ness, Thomas, Chin
CBT, Morgan, Foster-Caskey, DJ
Kanu, Leaburn
Or Clayden may be left back and McGrandles may be in midfield, plus a bunch of youth team players on the bench.
On form that line-up should be good enough to beat Colchester.
On form....
4
Comments
7.3 Each EFL Club shall play its Full Available Strength in and during all Matches.
Guidance
‘Full Available Strength’ means the EFL Club must include at least four Qualifying Players in the ten outfield Players named in the starting eleven on the Team Sheet.
7.4 Qualifying Player means any Player who:
7.4.1 had started the immediately preceding First Team Fixture (as defined below);
7.4.2 subsequently starts the immediately following First Team Fixture;
7.4.3 is in the list of ten Players at the Club with the highest number of starting appearances in First Team Fixtures in the same Season;
7.4.4 has made forty or more starting appearances in First Team Fixtures or international equivalents (and not limited to the same Club or Season); or
7.4.5 is on standard loan from a Premier League Club or any EFL Club operating a Category One Academy.
7.5 First Team Fixture means the League Competition, Premier League, EFL Cup or FA Challenge Cup (but shall, in the context of Rules 7.4.3 and 7.4.4 only, also include this Competition).
7.6 Any EFL Club failing to meet the requirement to play Full Available Strength will be required to pay a fine of up to £5,000.
Imagine if we win we're pretty much guaranteed to be through to the next round
The 3-3 U21 game yesterday was a great watch if you like watching football.
Charlton and Colchester have squared off on 38 previous occasions with the Addicks winning seven, the U’s seven and the remaining four encounters resulting in draws.
What happened in the other 20 fixtures were they abandoned.
Quite shocking really considering the relative sizes of the clubs, that we have an equal number of wins in the fixture. You'd expect us to be well ahead
Our chances of finishing in the top 2 are non-existant. Unless we find some form in our league games very quickly any outside chance of reaching the top 6 is remote.
If ever there was a season to take the cups seriously it is this one.
Not saying we should put out our first team tonight- far from it - but we should put a strong team out to make sure we qualify tonight.
Don't forget we were a couple of games away from Wembley last year in this competition until our players just couldn't be bothered to turn up at hartlepool last year. (Hard to forget Watsons abysmal effort to close a shot down that led to a goal)
A day out at Wembley in this competition is hardly what we are all dreaming off but it might do something to take some of the gloom away that is rapidly enveloping us.
Kanu started yesterday so can't see him starting again but with luck will come off the bench.
Terrel Thomas should be the latest V number added to the list and I hope CBT has a point to prove.
The demolishing of Gillingham and the win over QPR have been some of the rare positives this season so hoping for more of the same tonight in the minor cups.