Peterborough United v Charlton Athletic
Saturday 1st April 2017 … 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Graham Salisbury (Lancashire)
IntroductionAfter a long absence which saw two weeks of freedom from the Charlton match-day experience we return to League action this Saturday in what will mark the start of the final month of the entire season, eight months have surpassed and now we reach the true business end of the season as teams jockey and jostle for the final league positions…
Teams that are in relegation trouble now have a limited number of games to get themselves out of trouble, others are in last chance saloon for picking up form to make a late surge for the Play-Offs whilst others like Charlton are already on their summer holidays, this Saturday we make the trip to Peterborough United for the beginning of the end in what has been another disappointing season.
The OppositionName: Peterborough United |
Manager: Grant McCann
Ground: London Road
Its was back in December when these two sides last met; on the 17th December Peterborough made the shortish trip down to South London on the back of a terrible run against the Addicks which saw our opponents losing all but one game (a draw) from 1993 until the present day... Sadly though, that type of record always has to end (unless its us against Millwall) and the Addicks never looked like earning a point as the Posh returned home with a 2-0 win in the bag.
Since that day I felt certain that Peterborough would reach the Play-Offs such was their impressive display at the Valley yet a disastrous run in 2017 has seen the Posh fall to around mid-table and now look certain to be playing League One Football next term. The fact that Peterborough have only won two home games this calendar year means that the Addicks could well get something out of this Saturday.
Charlton Team NewsTwo weeks with no Football surely means that a lot of our injured players have now returned to fitness (unless your Ahmed Kashi)… One player though who wont be appearing again this term will be Left-Back: Lewis Page who has been ruled out with a hamstring, his place should be filled by Adam Chicksen rather than Jay Dasilva who having played for the England U17s over the last week will be coming back to Sparrows Lane for a good earned rest.
Staying in defence it was highlighted the other week that since Jason Pearce was injured we’ve picked up just eight points from a possible thirty six and with the summer signing now back and fit, we could see him starting this Saturday… Moving further up the pitch; Ezri Konsa had to withdraw from England duty with a hamstring injury so could also be out this Saturday, if so you’d expect Jake Forster-Caskey to potentially start in his place. Finally it will be a surprise to see Josh Magennis on Saturday after he was forced to take no part in the Northern Ireland matches last week, another player who is suffering with hamstring problems at this late stage.
Rudd
Byrne | Pearce | Teixeira | Chicksen
Botaka | Forster-Caskey | Crofts | Holmes
Novak | Watt
Substitutes Bench: Phillips | Dasilva | Bauer | Aribo | Jackson | Ahearne-Grant | Ulvestad
Comments
Byrne Bauer Pearce Chicksen
Crofts
Ulvestad Forster-Caskey
Holmes
Watt Novak
Phillips, Teixeira, Dasilva, Jackson, Aribo, Botaka, Magennis
Teixeira really unfortunate not to start, but with Pearce back, unless we go three at the back, I can't see Robinson leaving out Bauer.
2-0 win.
Holmes and Novak.
First clean sheet in 14 games, Pearce showing how important he is to us.
43 years without winning at Bramall Lane - Ended
48 years without winning a live televised game - Ended
45 years without beating Arsenal - Ended
61 years without a league double over Millwall - Ended
45 years without an away win at Bolton - Ended
50 years without a win at Anfield - Ended
Etc, etc, etc. Since Karl took over, he's quickly set about doing the exact opposite, bringing to an end some long-standing unbeaten records:
First defeat to Northampton in 53 years - Check
First ever home league defeat to Oxford - Check
First home league defeat to Bury for 42 years - Check
Having overseen our first home defeat to Peterborough in 23 years, I'm fully expecting him to follow this up with our first ever League defeat at London Road. It does feel like performances have improved a little bit recently, and we were actually really good against Bradford, but our defending is really alarming at times and the fact that Karl has ignored that and focused on lack of fitness in most of his recent pre and post-match waffling suggests to me that he doesn't know what to do about it.
Posh will be desperate for a win to keep the very faint play-off hopes alive. Port Vale and Gillingham below us will both fancy themselves to pick up points this weekend, and we could easily end up being a mere 4 points above the drop zone on Saturday evening.
2-1 to Posh.
lots of our players should be playing for their futures, either with us or somewhere down the road .. typed should .. let's hope they give it a right good go for the rest of the season
Peterborough United 2 v CAFC 2
1-3 Jacko hat trick.
Peterborough 2-0 Charlton
@The31YearMan to get suitably ridiculed on the dj coach about whether or not he's going with the trust coach to Coventry......
He deals with being the coach pariah by burying his head in The Railways, nation, network and people by Simon Bradley.
The only solace as we hit the Redbridge roundabout is that he knows the year 3rd class carriages were abolished on the train network
Magennis may be fit now, so I'd expect to see him and Watt up front.
Prefer Ulvestadt over Crofts.
Oh, I just don't give a fook to be honest. Just looking forward to the craic of the match thread. See you there.
Personally I reckon a boring 1.I.
Sums our shite season up.
Just sell the club
Byrne Bauer Pearce Chicksen
Ulvestad
Forster-Caskey Jackson
Holmes
Watt Novak
1-1
Rudd
Byrne Bauer Tex Chicks
................JJ
....Ulve...........JFC
...........Holmes
......Novak........Watt
Or
Rudd
Byrne Bauer Tex Chicks
.........Ulve.....JJ
Holmes....JFC.......Botaka
............Watt
Otherwise, with the return of Pearce we're really well set up to play 3 at the back, with Chicksen and Byrne perfect as wingbacks, indeed almost certainly more suited to that role than a straight full back role...
With players returning, we really ought to start getting some positive results.
A clean sheet and 3 points to move us away from the relegation zones.
1-0 and Peterborough are ecstatic at being bought out by RedBull