Wrexham Vs Charlton (not a preview, will leave that with the pros!)

There are Pros who write Match Previews?

Wonder how many of those ego opinions belong to their "newer" fanbase who have very little knowledge of how unpredictable the EFL can be.

To be fair to Parky, I've felt that his experience of getting out of League One has possibly been their biggest asset this season. They did also look very good against us at the Valley earlier in the season, however watching them against Burton and Wigan of late and they look like a sprinter that is running out of energy as they get towards the finishing line... I'm certainly not "scared" of them ahead of Saturday.

I do feel having read Wycombe / Wrexham fan views elsewhere (Reddit etc.) that for a good while now, even since our good form, that its been a two horse race, and that fans of both sides (until now with Wycombe) have been a bit naïve in that respect. So would love it if we come out of no where to pip them both.

 - What minute do we think Wrexham will get a penalty against us.
 - Who is getting sent off for Charlton?

If we can beat them on Saturday I'm fairly confident that they'll drop points to Lincoln on the final game. (I did however think they'd drop points to Blackpool as well) 

I also don't see Wycombe getting more than 3 points from Orient or Stockport.

If we don't finish 2nd, I would rather Wrexham did over Wycombe. The cynic in me says if Wrexham are in the playoffs, the EFL will be pulling out all the stops for a Wrexham win at Wembley!

Fancy our chances against any of the other 4 potential teams.

covered_end_junior said:

If we can beat them on Saturday I'm fairly confident that they'll drop points to Lincoln on the final game. (I did however think they'd drop points to Blackpool as well) 

I also don't see Wycombe getting more than 3 points from Orient or Stockport.

This will be the Lincoln that on Friday won at Reading (battling with Orient for last play-off place) and on Monday beat Bolton (all but knocking them out of play-off contention).

Oh, and the Lincoln that were two-up on us a couple of weeks back.

It's not a gimme for Disney FC ... at least it shouldn't be given the results from the last few weeks.

LargeAddick said:

Briston_Addick said:

covered_end_junior said:

If we can beat them on Saturday I'm fairly confident that they'll drop points to Lincoln on the final game. (I did however think they'd drop points to Blackpool as well) 

I also don't see Wycombe getting more than 3 points from Orient or Stockport.

This will be the Lincoln that on Friday won at Reading (battling with Orient for last play-off place) and on Monday beat Bolton (all but knocking them out of play-off contention).

Oh, and the Lincoln that were two-up on us a couple of weeks back.

It's not a gimme for Disney FC ... at least it shouldn't be given the results from the last few weeks.

I think that’s what @covered_end_junior was saying.

Just flagging up what Lincoln had done recently to back up that opinion.

I said a few weeks ago that if we are to go up automatically then we needed to be in a position that if we beat Wrexham we go above them.
Sadly that's not the case and I can't see Wrexham not winning at Lincoln. 
Having said all that if we can keep showing the form we did yesterday then we should fear  no one in the playoffs 

beating Wrexham at Wembley would be the ultimate....however losing to them at Wembley would feel a whole lot worse than to anyone else I reckon

WrightCharlie said:

Bit worried the live screening at the valley means no charlton tv for the game…. does anyone know please?

CharltonTV if you're abroad; Sky Sports Football if you're in the UK

WillmoreTheRed said:

Got 0-0 written all over it.

I thought that yesterday...

Despite being utterly elated at the result at Adams Park on Saturday, I still find myself ruing the fact that we lost away to Peterborough and that was the game where we effectively gave away our shot at second. That is not to take away anything from that fantastic performance, but that was the point at which we needed to win every game to have a realistic shot at it.

The glass half-full view I have is that we need to win on Saturday vs. Wrexham to even have a chance at second, and they just need to avoid defeat. If you said they could have the point now, they would tear your arm off for it, particularly given the context of us just smashing that Wycombe team at their home ground. They can park the bus from minute one, play absolute housery football and try to sneak a goal at the end, even if they are behind.

When we are at our best in this season, teams in this league cannot cope with it. Be it the specialised tactics vs Birmingham at home or the 4-0 stuffings of Huddersfield and Wycombe home and away in recent weeks, our first XI can mix it with anyone. Other teams are rightfully scared of us and our form. We were just 2-3 weeks late on turning this on to be a sustained push for 2nd. This is not to downplay what we have achieved already - it's just a crazy what if situation that I hope we don't regret once the playoff picture is resolved.

Realistically, I think Wrexham will want to keep it tight, will probably play Dobbo and not try to win the game or let the game be open in any way. If they let us play, I feel confident we can beat them, but I just don't think they will risk letting us do that. A point is more than good enough for them. Unfortunately, it doesn't take any Pep level genius to figure that out.

Even ignoring 2nd, our incentive should be to go for the win regardless, as 3rd is completely up for grabs if you consider Wycombe are effectively capitulating. Orient could beat them, and Stockport the same. As we have said so many times, we can only focus on what we do. Trying to win our last two games remains our primary objective, and then we are looking for Lincoln to play spoiler on the last day vs. Wrexham. It's unlikely, but this league this season, who knows.

I didn't think we'd win on Saturday, but we are still in it for second. Just need to keep pushing and keep trying, as the mentality helps us going into the more likely outcome of the playoffs. I selfishly want those playoff games for the days out, but we're a scary prospect for anyone atm.

transfermrkt.co.uk allows you to create a custom league table where you can select a set of clubs and the table is based on results between those clubs.

This is what happens when you isolate the results of the top 7 (I'm assuming the final play-off spot is between Reading and Orient with Bolton six points behind the other two with two to play) amongst themselves:

	Club		Pl		W		D		L		Goals		GD		Pts		Points per match
1	Birmingham City		12		7		4		1		17:08		9		25		2.08
2	Charlton Athletic		11		5		4		2		13:08		5		19		1.73
3	Wrexham AFC		11		4		3		4		13:13		0		15		1.36
4	Stockport County		11		4		3		4		12:16		-4		15		1.36
5	Leyton Orient		11		4		1		6		11:13		-2		13		1.18
6	Reading FC		12		3		4		5		09:15		-6		13		1.08
7	Wycombe Wanderers		10		2		1		7		14:16		-2		7		0.70

It's nice to see that we're more than holding our own against the top sides and we're not in a "false" position by being flat track bullies and picking up all our points against the bottom teams.

th0rryy said:

Despite being utterly elated at the result at Adams Park on Saturday, I still find myself ruing the fact that we lost away to Peterborough and that was the game where we effectively gave away our shot at second. That is not to take away anything from that fantastic performance, but that was the point at which we needed to win every game to have a realistic shot at it.

The glass half-full view I have is that we need to win on Saturday vs. Wrexham to even have a chance at second, and they just need to avoid defeat. If you said they could have the point now, they would tear your arm off for it, particularly given the context of us just smashing that Wycombe team at their home ground. They can park the bus from minute one, play absolute housery football and try to sneak a goal at the end, even if they are behind.

When we are at our best in this season, teams in this league cannot cope with it. Be it the specialised tactics vs Birmingham at home or the 4-0 stuffings of Huddersfield and Wycombe home and away in recent weeks, our first XI can mix it with anyone. Other teams are rightfully scared of us and our form. We were just 2-3 weeks late on turning this on to be a sustained push for 2nd. This is not to downplay what we have achieved already - it's just a crazy what if situation that I hope we don't regret once the playoff picture is resolved.

Realistically, I think Wrexham will want to keep it tight, will probably play Dobbo and not try to win the game or let the game be open in any way. If they let us play, I feel confident we can beat them, but I just don't think they will risk letting us do that. A point is more than good enough for them. Unfortunately, it doesn't take any Pep level genius to figure that out.

Even ignoring 2nd, our incentive should be to go for the win regardless, as 3rd is completely up for grabs if you consider Wycombe are effectively capitulating. Orient could beat them, and Stockport the same. As we have said so many times, we can only focus on what we do. Trying to win our last two games remains our primary objective, and then we are looking for Lincoln to play spoiler on the last day vs. Wrexham. It's unlikely, but this league this season, who knows.

I didn't think we'd win on Saturday, but we are still in it for second. Just need to keep pushing and keep trying, as the mentality helps us going into the more likely outcome of the playoffs. I selfishly want those playoff games for the days out, but we're a scary prospect for anyone atm.

We dropped 2 points at home to Lincoln which was 3 games after Peterborough. If we'd won that it'd still be in our own hands.

NorthernLights said:

Come on Charlton! The majority of the football supporting world (with the sole exception of a small town in North Wales) is hoping they can take second spot. That is not an anti-Wrexham comment, simply the truth that most neutral fans are sick of the circus.

Let's have a club in the Championship that should be there, rather than one that has bought another promotion.

Lincoln are playing well (watch Reeco Hackett's goal against Bolton yesterday for something extraordinary) and could easily take Wrexham out on the final day. The shackles are off, and the manager has finished buggering about with baffling formations and playing players out of position. Had they stuck to what they are good at instead of creating unnecessary self-inflicted wounds, they could have been right up there themselves. 

If Charlton can win their final two games, I think they are up.