Derby County v Charlton Athletic | Tuesday 27th February 2024 | Match Preview, Prediction & News

Derby County v Charlton Athletic
Tuesday 27th February 2024 - Kick-Off: 19:45

Referee
Jeremy Simpson - last officiated a Charlton match against Derby back in December 2019! Simpson has officiated Derby on many occasions but has only been the man in the middle for us against Derby, Bradford, Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Barnsley, and Leicester, all away from home. 

Introduction
Our first clean sheet since the middle of October was achieved on Saturday against the league leaders. A shocking statistic it is, but a foundation to build upon going into the crucial last 12 games of the season. Performances have improved under Jones where we look committed and willing to fight for everything. Picking up points against the top sides has to provide confidence that we will have enough about us to get the points we need in our bid for survival. This preview is slightly different for me this time round as I can't say anything about how we played or set up on Saturday as I wasn't in attendance, but what I can say is I am delighted that we will be having a new Charlton supporter (and potential player) with us soon as my newly wedded wife and I found out we are having a baby boy! - but enough of that personal business, there's a game in Derbyshire to take care of! Next up, the Addicks face Derby County in our quest to pick up our second league away win of the season...

Opposition
Stadium: Pride Park
Manager: Paul Warne
Nickname(s): The Rams
Previous result: A 2-1 loss away at Barnsley. Their line up was:

We only played Derby in the reverse fixture at the start of the month, narrowly losing 1-0 at The Valley courtesy of a Mendez-Laing winner after receiving treatment off the pitch for what seemed an eternity. Since, Derby have picked up wins against Exeter and Stevenage, a draw against Shrewsbury, and the recent defeat at Barnsley. As we saw when we played them a few weeks back, the Rams rarely give up many chances and have the second best defence in the league. They're not afraid to wind the clock down and frustrate opponents if they need to, and despite their league position, supporters are not best pleased with the entertainment, or lack of, on offer. But in this division, it doesn't matter about free-flowing football, great if you can do it and win, but it's the points and getting into the Championship which counts. Derby have a manager who has a track record of that and with the size of club, they really ought to be achieving that goal this season.

A player who has struggle to feature for different reasons, injury being a main one, is a player we all know very well. Blackett-Taylor moved to Derby in the January window and since, our creativity has almost completely faded away scoring just 5 goals in 6 games. CBT was always going to be a big loss to us, and we can hope that he will continue to be unavailable to Derby this midweek.

Derby's form over the last 10 matches has them in 4th place with a PPG of 2.00. However, what is interesting is that of those 10 games, their opponents average PPG is 1.24, only Portsmouth and Bristol Rovers have played against a lower average PPG in the same time period whilst no club has a higher average PPG for opponents than Charlton from our previous 10. Although we have struggled to pick up points for a long time, we have - on average - played against teams with play-off form, it does maybe put a different spin on things. 

Charlton Team News
Lloyd Jones picked up his 10th booking of the season meaning he will miss our away trips to Derby and Northampton. Thankfully, as games now are coming thick and fast, the defender - who has greatly improved since his short spell out of the team, won't be waiting too long for his return. It has come at a time where we are well stocked in central defence and Gillesphey, Ness, and the returned from injury, Michael Hector, will all be looking to play.

Thierry Small has come in for Edun at left-wing back and shown to be very good at Bolton and I have seen some positive reviews of his performance on Saturday. Hopefully that continues and he can become a regular as he has a lot of excellent attributes. Talking of young players, another 19 year-old, born 2 months exactly after Small, Karoy Anderson has shown to be outstanding since his recall into the first-team picture under Nathan Jones. The academy graduate picking up the man of the match award on Saturday highlights how bright his future could be.

There are likely to be a couple of changes away from the enforced Jones switch with potentially a new front two and a different body in midfield. Coventry will look to be included in the squad after missing out on Saturday whilst Camara will be aiming for his first start since our only away win of the season. Will Kanu and May continue up top? Will Ladapo be recalled? Lots of decisions to be made. Can only hope that Jones finds the right formula to bring our first win since the end of November.