The Enticing Intro BitPaddy Power and his bookie mates must be scratching their heads.
Derby were the pre-season favourites to win the Championship, whilst Charlton were 2nd favourites for relegation. But the opening week of the season saw Derby kick-off with a disappointing draw at unfancied Bolton, and a ‘giant-killing’ defeat at League 2 Portsmouth. Meanwhile, the unfancied Addicks recorded an impressive opener against Queens Park Rangers and a professional dispatching of Dagenham in the cup.
Have the bookies got it all wrong?
The Bit About UsCharlton’s opening week could not have gone better for
Guy Luzon; two victories, impressive debuts, competition for places, and injuries to a couple of key players failing to have a negative impact. Saturday’s triumph was also the first time the
Covered End properly sang the Israeli’s name since his January arrival; after a less-than-positive reaction to his introduction to the Club, the majority of fans are increasingly getting onside with the touchline jack-in-the-box, whose in-play mannerisms are single-handedly commandeering the expression
‘bat-shit crazy’.
The most impressive aspects to ‘new-look Charlton’ were the energy and defensive cover provided by holding centre mid
Ahmed Kashi, and the solid, tactically astute presence of central defender
Patrick Bauer. With
Ba providing a similar central role to Kashi, and
Cousins pushed out to the left of midfield, Charlton look set to prove a potentially difficult to breakdown, organised, defence-first unit. Offensively, galloping Scandanavian lamp post
Makienok now offers a decent out-ball option and the quality of
Gudmundsson, coupled with the unpredictability and directness of
Watt will be the main focus of Charlton’s open-play attack.
The Bit About ThemSteve McClaren was sacked at the end of the season after disappointing in failing to get Derby over the line, and has since jumped on an East Coast train to Newcastle. Appointing
Paul Clement to his first managerial role was the surprise decision, and it’s been an impressive rise in the football ranks for the 43-year old with no playing background, and who just 15 years ago was a PE teacher in Sutton.
Derby have tremendous quality in their squad, and have bolstered this further with the summer signings of
Tom Ince, Darren Bent, Jason Shackell, Chris Baird, Scott Carson and Andreas Weimann. They also managed to retain their impressive youngster
Will Hughes, but were rocked by the news that he tore his cruciate ligaments versus Bolton and will be out for six months.
Derby lined up 4-3-1-2 against Bolton last week, with Tom Ince playing in the hole behind
Chris Martin and
Johnny Russell, and it will be interest if they adapt their formation when at home. Pre-season friendlies have also seen them experiment with 4-3-3 and a 4-4-2 with a midfield diamond.
The One to Watch
While most Addicks fans will be affording more than just a glancing eye towards former Valley Hero Darren Bent,
George Thorne is our ‘one to watch’ this week. Born locally in Chatham, Thorne was a big money mover last summer from West Brom, but cruelly tore his cruciate ligaments in a pre-season friendly and missed the bulk of last season as a result. But the 22-year old is now fully fit, and has started the season with a bang; many people highlighted a MoM performance at Bolton last week. A defensive central-midfielder who likes to control play, it will be interesting to see his match up against Kashi / Ba.
The bit where we look back at a previous victoryAre we gonna party like its 1999?20th February 1999 to be precise.
Charlton had been struggling in the relegation zone in their 1st season in the Premiership, but having come through a run of 15 games without a win (nine straight defeats) back-to-back victories against Wimbledon (remember them?) and Liverpool had given us renewed positivity ahead of the trip to Pride Park.
A workman-like performance, marshalled by
John Barnes in the centre saw the Addicks take the lead through
Andy Hunt midway through the 2nd half. But the real highlighting came in the 86th minute, when
Martin Pringle managed to run a full 40 yards with the ball without falling over, to fire past Russel Hoult and send the away fans loopy nut nut. ‘
Pringle makes Charlton tingle’ headlined
The Guardian, whilst highlighting Charlton’s noisy travelling support.
A repeat on Saturday would be more than welcome.
Derby: Hoult, Prior, Stimac, Laursen, Delap, D Powell, Carsley, Eranio, Dorigo, Sturridge, Burton SUBS: Bohinen, Wanchope
Charlton: Royce, Mills, Tiler, Brown, C Powell, Redfearn, Kinsella, K Jones, Pringle, Hunt, Robinson SUBS: Barnes, Mendonca, Barness
The bit where everyone accuses you of hating the Club, wanting Roland out and being a xenophobic bed-wetter, all because you predict a Charlton defeat…Despite being so early in the season, this is potentially a pressure game for Derby; home defeat on top of their muted start will no doubt trigger the first panicking cries of
‘is Clement up for being a number one?’.
However, Charlton’s recent record at Pride Park is awful; the last five visits have gleaned zero points, and we failed to score in four of them. Saturday will be another tough test; a point will be a fantastic achievement and the emphasis will be put on Derby to break us down, with us looking to utilise Watt on the counter, or hoping for something to happen from a dead ball situation. Will Luzon tweak the flat 4-4-2 he employed at home last Saturday?
The win against QPR has taken a lot of pressure off what always looked a very difficult start to the season. Our game-plan is likely to be to frustrate Derby and hope they are negatively impacted by the growing impatience of the crowd the longer the game goes on if they fail to break us down. There will be a big reliance on our two defence banks of four to stay disciplined. Sadly, I don’t think we are quite there yet in terms of our XI knowing each other well enough to put in that level of performance, particularly without Henderson in goal, or retain possession well enough. I fear Derby kick-starting their season looks the more likely outcome.
A defeat should not trigger despondency however, as I feel this will prove in hindsight to be one of our toughest visits of the season.
2-0 Derby
Comments
Reckon it'll be a 1-1 draw
Based on my fear that Tony Watt picked up a knock on Tuesday that will keep him on the bench again, and that Zac Bergdich has a slight muscle pull that might keep him out altogether, my team would line up like this -
Pope
Solly, Bauer, Diarra, Fox
Gudmundsson, Kashi, Ba, Cousins
Makienok, Ahearne-Grant
Subs: Mitov, Charles-Cook, Sarr, Jackson, Watt, Reza, Ceballos
Predict a 2-1 defeat sadly.
Those that fancy us can get us at 6/1 on Betfred
It wont take long for the natives to get restless.
0-1 Charlton. TWWW with the goal in the 82nd min.
I thought Watt was fine? If he is out then I predict we may struggle.
0-3
2-0 defeat
If there are issues then we do have Reza dont forget (As Luzon has admitted he's been impressed with his effort)
Absolute carnage!!
Will still be tough but I think we can get something out of the game. 1 - 1
A bit like QPR think we are playing Derby at the right time before they really get their act together under a new manager.
Watt and Gudmundsson with our goals.
On the other hand, they could be out to prove something and get their season up and running.
I reckon Clement's faltering start will continue but us winning would be too good to be true, so I'll say 1-1.
Four yellows last Saturday between Rotherham and MK Dons
88 yellows and one red last season in 35 games.
Last in charge against Charlton in a 1-1 draw versus Dirty Leeds at Elland Road in October 2012.
Derby County 1 v CAFC 3
First game of the season for me on the 11.26 out St Pancras
1-1 but would not be shocked if we sneaked a 1-2 win
1-1 draw. JBG free kick in the first half cancelled out by Bent late on in the second half.
Then I wake up and reality kicks in 2 - 0 Derby but we get back on track at Forest on Tuesday