From the South London Press
Charlton midfielder Matt Holland has warned that the January transfer window could play a crucial role in the outcome of this year's Championship race.
With less than two weeks until the window opens, a number of Premier League clubs are rumoured to be circling the Championship's biggest stars, such as Watford's Marlon King, West Bromwich Albion midfielder Zoltan Gera and Charlton captain Andy Reid.
And with the division's top clubs also hoping to add new faces to strengthen their promotion bids,exIpswich midfielder Holland says that the next month may be telling.
"The January transfer window is very important, because I'm sure teams in the Premier League will be looking at some of our players, as well as at guys in all the top teams in the Championship," the former Republic of Ireland international said.
"Some teams may lose key personnel but you never know who could splash out a bit of money and radically improve their squad.
"Our manager has spoken about wanting to bring in a few new signings and hopefully he can do that, and boost the squad for the second half of the season. It will be a very interesting time and it could prove vital."
With so many games due to be played in the same period, Holland insists that the Addicks must raise their game by at least five per cent if they want to maintain their promotion push - starting against Hull tomorrow.
"We are going into a big part of the season now and we'll be facing teams we have already played earlier in the year so there shouldn't be too many surprises," the 33-year-old said.
"We performed well at Hull and won 2-1, we beat both Norwich and Leicester at home and we drew away at Colchester.
"We know a bit about these teams and if we can get a similar points total from when we played them before,we should be up near the top of the table.
"Hull are a decent team. They spent some money in the summer and brought in some good players, so we know they will be a dangerous outfit.
"They've had some good results recently but we performed well at the KC Stadium and that should give us heart ahead of Saturday's game.
"The Championship is so tight this year and a lot of teams seem capable of beating each other.There is no one club running away with things and that makes it exciting for the neutral.
"I'm not sure it has ever been as close as this but if we can maintain our best level of performance, as we did in the first half against Ipswich, we will be right up there at the end of the season."
Charlton's preparations for the Christmas period have been struck by the news that Reid may be sidelined for up to a month with a knee injury sustained against West Brom last Saturday.
Holland would be a natural replacement to fill in as Addicks skipper, but he says he hasn't even thought about taking the armband yet.
"I know Reidy is struggling with his injury at the moment but hopefully he won't be out for too long because he has been very influential,"Holland said.
"I have been captain before and if I get the chance to wear the armband again then it's great, but there should be 11 captains out there on the field.
"We know we need to improve during the second half of the season, but confidence is still very high."
South London Press 
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