Charlton Athletic v Port Vale
Saturday 19th November … 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Richard Clark (Northumberland)
IntroductionThey always say a week is a long time in Football yet this week in particular has felt extremely long… Last Saturday saw the Addicks making their first appearance on TV this season and on that showing you have to pray it’ll be the last appearance. Despite missing four players, the Charlton performance was embarrassing to say the least with the 3-0 scoreline our worst of the season.
48-hours later and we received the surprising news that Russell Slade had been sacked… Just four wins this season proved to be not good enough and the revolving door swung once more. Communication has been a key word under our current regime yet there appears to be no news about an incoming replacement, nor does there appear to be any news about who’ll be in charge this Saturday… Our opponents much be loving this, I doubt Port Vale have ever had an easier run up to a match in their history.
The OppositionName: Port Vale |
Manager: Bruno Ribeiro
Reverse Fixture: Port Vale 1-1 Charlton Athletic
Well now this is strange, we all know that we have to face all League One teams home and away yet for both fixtures to come in such a short space of time is certainly unusual. Of course though it’s something that’s not happened before, back in the days of proper Football, the Addicks would face a team away from home and then the following week they’d play that exact same team at home… Plymouth Argyle (not our latest opponents) are a perfect example of this, on Boxing Day 1960 we faced them in the West Country and lost 6-4, the very next day we played them at the Valley… and won 6-4.
The situation isn’t as extreme this time round (as Charlton would take longer than 90mins to score six times in a match) yet one month ago we travelled to Port Vale and for the majority of the match it looked assured that the Addicks would pick up their second away victory of the season… Sadly our typical form shone through and the Valliant’s managed to earn a draw following a late penalty. Since that fixture; Port Vale have continued to surprise many in the League, other than a brief drop to 11th, they’ve remained in and around the Play-Off positions and appear to be one of the surprise packages this season.
Charlton Team NewsRather difficult to work out who’ll be pulling on the red shirt this weekend seeing that we don’t even know who’ll be in the dugout… The good news is that Ademola Lookman should return after International Duty along with Jordan Botaka who both appear to have come through unscathed. Josh Magennis on the other hand was injured against Croatia on Tuesday night so could be a doubt whilst Ricky Holmes (deemed 50/50 for our match against Swindon) is hopefully closer to a return.
Rudd
Solly | Bauer | Pearce | Fox
Mendez | Crofts | Ulvestad | Botaka
Lookman | Ajose
Substitutes Bench: Phillips | Konsa | Teixeira | Jackson | Foley | Novak | Hanlan
PredictionIt’s impossible to see a win for Charlton this weekend as matters off the pitch continue to overshadow matters on the pitch, quite simply a draw is the best we can hope for but even that will be a huge achievement.
Comments
0-2
Rudd
Solly Bauer Tex Fox
Crofts Ulvestd
Botaka Holmes Lookman
Ajose
Keep the ball on the floor but get forward quickly with pace and skill. Hope someone sticks a few in the net...
He hands out leaflets identifying the core actors to all the fans and enjoys a quiet meal in peace at the valley cafe.
I will be at the Oak about 1-30
I will meet my mates
I will have a couple of beers
We will moan about our basket case of a football club.
We will take our seats in the North Lower about 3 minutes to 3
We will sing protest songs
There will be a match played in front of us, but none of us will give a flying fuck about it.
We will go home.
Yep thats the CAFC match experience right there, in a nutshell.
Although you have selected a player with a broken foot, so maybe you do deserve a chance.
Desperate times for a interim manager; good luck Kevin!
Rudd
Solly
Bauer
Pearce
Fox
Botaka
Crofts
Ulvestad
Lookman
Ajose
Novak
Substitutes Bench: Phillips, Lennon, Teixeira, Jackson, Foley, Umarah, Hanlan
Negative twat
Chris Ribena v another of Roland's bum chums whose name escapes me.
0.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Iz2jeFsOY
CAFC 2 v Port Vale 0
Unfortunately, it will be the Brazilian national curling team, slow, only occasionally interesting (maybe once every four years, if we're lucky), and lacking accuracy....
Welcome mat very firmly in place.
2-0 to the visitors.
Playoffs by Xmas.
Anyway, part of me hopes we win because I detest seeing Charlton in this pub league and still hope that we can somehow fluke our way out of it, despite the idiots at the top doing everything in their power to ruin us.
The other part of me hopes we get thrashed, because a club with an owner who doesn’t care, a disgrace of a CEO, run appallingly from top to bottom, with a thoroughly contemptuous attitude towards its customers, deserves to get thrashed, week in week out, and the people in charge deserve to receive the scorn and anger that comes with that.
On balance, I hope we get thrashed – I’d rather deal with the misery of sitting through another dismal afternoon’s football than let Katrien feel in any way vindicated for her latest absurd episode.
4-0 to The Valiants.
I'll be getting the doctor to check my meds tomorrow.