Charlton Athletic v Milton Keynes Dons
Tuesday 08 March 2016 … 7:45pm Kick-Off
Referee: Charles Breakspear (Surrey)
IntroductionOne win down, another eleven to go… After a surprise 2-1 win against Brentford on Saturday that would be the ideal scenario for us at the moment, seeing Charlton going on an amazing run winning every match from now until the end of the season and so finishing comfortably in mid-table… Of course if that were to happen it would leave many questions including: Why did it take so long for that form to show.
In an ideal world though we know that scenario won’t happen, either way though the next eleven matches (finishing at home to Burnley) don’t matter just like the previous 35-matches that have been played (with the majority ending in defeat) equally don’t matter, with many fans believing that relegation is now in the bag it’s time to stop looking at the League table and start looking at the next match and the next match alone… Our season hangs by the slimmest of threads; a win this Tuesday night against
Milton Keynes Dons could be huge but regardless, a win this Tuesday and we simply look forward to the next one against Middlesbrough.
In regards to what happens on the pitch, nothing else matters
The OppositionName: Milton Keynes Dons |
Manager: Karl Robinson
Ground: Stadium.MK |
Nickname: The Dons
For this preview I thought I’d concentrate on an opposition player for this section… Especially as for
Dean Lewington it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster career, in an era when very few players spend their entire career at one club, Lewington has this season surpassed 500-appearances, impressive as it hasn’t been completely plain sailing.
Raised in Kingston (South London), Lewington is from the heart of the Wimbledon jungle and just two years after they were relegated from the Premier League. Lewington would make his first team debut… Two years later though and we all know what happened next, Wimbledon were relegated further into League One and were scratched from the records, forever to be now known as their current guise: Milton Keynes Dons.
It would get worse before it got better and the MK Dons would be relegated once again, this time down to League Two… Their spell in the Fourth tier would be short lived though and the Dons would bounce back to League One at the second time of asking then after countless attempts in the Play-Offs, MK Dons were finally promoted back to the Championship… After an eleven year break, Dean Lewington having seen it all would be playing in the second tier.
As already mentioned… 500-appearances for a “single club” must be applauded… Yet let’s try to ensure that relegation is once again added to his CV.
Charlton Team NewsRumours are already afoot amongst some on CharltonLife as to which side I’ll be entering in my Preview this week… Naturally I’m a big believer that when a team wins, that same side deserves to start the following match, of course the best Managers will tinker a squad to counter whoever they're playing...
The biggest (and sole quandary) will be whether Stephen Henderson has recovered from his dead leg which ruled him out on Saturday, of course if he is fit you’d expect him to start yet if not then
Nick Pope will surely step forward and take his place in the team once more… Alou Diarra failed to last until Half-Time on Saturday so will surely be replaced by
Diego Poyet. Jose Riga has kept faith in his 3-4-1-2 formation of late so we could see Morgan Fox at Centre-Back in place of Roger Johnson once more.
Pope
Fanni … Teixeira … Fox
Motta … Poyet … Cousins … Young
Gudmundsson
Harriott … Sanogo
Substitutes Bench: Mitov … Sarr … Johnson … Ba … Lookman … Ghoochanniejad … Makienok
Prediction
Charlton Athletic 2-1 Milton Keynes Dons
Comments
Heart 2-1
Head 1-2
Depending on what Riga says after the match I see him back for the Middlesbrough game
4-0 Charlton
Which Charlton will turn up the one that always loves to kick us back down just when we can see a glimmer of hope or the one that keeps that hope alive.............hmmmm. I suppose an 8-0 to the Addicks is completely out of the question which would then make the goal difference of -26 the same for both clubs,................ they couldn't could they?
for me their best player is 14, Carruthers, good name for a Butler or Foreign Office diplomat, but this Carruthers makes them tick .. stop him and win .. unchanged team for us even if Henderson is fit ..
CAFC 2 V Milton Keynes Dons 0
I'm of the opinion that we don't really do "dishing out wallopings", and are only really due to wallop another team in the same way that we are also due to win the Champions League and provide the England team with three star players to help us win the next World Cup.
One thing that Charlton definitely do "do" is 3-0 defeats. We've managed six this season and an extraordinary 15 in total during the time since we dished out that thrashing to Barnsley.
It's now three games and 17 days since we last lost 3-0, so we're well overdue another one.
Prediction:
Charlton Athletic 0 - 3 MK Dons
A big night at the valley 3-1 to the mighty addicks.................................
COYR...............
I'm going for a home win, 2-0.
Lads 0 MK Dons 2
Pope
Motta
Fanni
Teixeira
Young
Gudundsson
Poyet
Cousins
Harriot
Sanogo
Makienok
Subs whatever the formation will be from the usual suspects - Mitov, Fox, Johnson, Bergdich, Lookman, Reza, Ba, Sarr, Holmes-Dennis, Charles-Cook, Umerah, Kennedy, etc.
Poyet MOTM
they have a big lad up front who likes to put it about and he apparently gave Onuoha and Angella a torrid time.
also a winger (Josh Murphy?), tricky and very effective.
said MK's defence looked suspect to pace although QPR were so woeful they couldn't make any impression on them.
there you go Roland, scouting done.
1-1 is my prediction which will be no good to us at all.
3-0 Home win.
Charlton 2 MK Dons 1. Harriot and Sanogo for the Addicks and 3 more crucial points adds pressure to the teams in the mix.
But then it's horses for courses.