Charlton Athletic vs Cambridge United | Saturday 11th December 2021 @ 3pm | Match Preview

Charlton Athletic vs Cambridge United
Saturday 11th December 2021 - 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Benjamin Speedie

Introduction
Well the Johnnie Jackson Express appears to be rumbling on with another victory under the Valley Floodlights - Defeat at Shrewsbury two weeks ago raised slight concern amongst the Valley faithful, it was perhaps the first game where we've seen performance levels drop under the new Management team. So naturally question marks were raised, was the honeymoon period over, or was it an opportunity for Jackson to show that he had the bounce back mentality to recover after a defeat? - We saw on Tuesday that it was the latter, the Champions elect put to the sword on this occasion.

The Opposition
Name: Cambridge United (15th) | Manager: Mark Bonner
Ground: The Abbey Stadium
Previous Meeting: Charlton Athletic 0-0 Cambridge United (1992)

The visitors to the Valley will be the last side out of the four promoted from League Two last season, and come from a City better known for its little jolly on the River Thames than for its Football club. Like Morecambe, our opponents this weekend are a side who never looked like challenging for promotion up until 2020/21, indeed since their return to the Football League in 2014; Cambridge's best achievement was a ninth place finish in 2016.

Heading back further in time and life as a Cambridge fan hasn't been enjoyable since the turn of Millennium - 2002 was the last time they were in the English third tier, with the U's dropping even further into the Conference just three years later where they'd endure a nine year spell - Fortunes changed as we entered the second decade, the unknown Mark Bonner (who joined the club in 2011 as a 29-year old coach) took charge and in his first full season as Manager, guided this Club back into League One.

Of course losing Paul Mullin wasn't helped over the summer, yet Cambridge had a ready made replacement in Joe Ironside who already has eleven goals to his name this term (three came in the 5-0 midweek win at Cheltenham)... Whilst we bemoan the departure of James Beadle today, we welcome back another ex-Academy player; Dimitar Mitov on Saturday, the young Goalkeeper famously scored from his own area in Charlton Youth match many years ago now.

Cambridge naturally boasts the fifth oldest University in the world. Will they be teacher, or student this Saturday afternoon?

Charlton Team News
We had the pleasure of seeing Jason Pearce back in the line up on Tuesday night and his experience showed as he kept ex-Addick: Macauley Bonne well and truly under control - Whether he's available this Saturday remains to be seen, rumour has it that Eddie Jones will be wanting him in his England squad after a superb second half tackle, and so stop a certain try / conversion.

Elsewhere and it looks business as usual with the likes of Adam Matthews still absent from the team - Others like Albie Morgan and Charlie Kirk will surely be sitting on and watching, wondering when their own opportunity will arise again. Yet when the current squad is so relentless, its difficult to look beyond the settled team that is even appearing in the FA Cup, let alone the League.


Prediction
As to be suspected I was probably one of the few laid back posters after the draw with Morecambe (a little less so the result against Shrewsbury) - There are plenty of ex-Premier League teams at this level, yet the foundations of League One are made up of these teams who you have to admire in their stubbornness in defence, and we will struggle once again against that type of opposition before we consign this season to the history books.

Those who do well at this level aren't just the ones who can defeats the Ipswich's and Sunderland's, yet those who can also come away from these nitty gritty games with all three points - This Saturday will be no different, and whilst the Play-Off aspirations from Jackson COULD be achievable, they certainly wont if we drop points on every occasion like this Saturday.