Southend United v Charlton Athletic
New Year’s Eve … 1pm Kick-Off
Referee: Mark Heywood (West Yorkshire)
IntroductionI started my last Match Preview wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and would like to start my next in the same fashion… For some of us 2016 hasn’t been the best of years and at some stage we’ll have laughed, cried and torn our hair out and that’s even before I get on to the subject of Charlton Athletic…
Events have transpired this calendar year in Football that none of us have wanted (ultimately relegation) but we’re Addicks and we’ll continue to support the team and we’ll continue to fight matters surrounding the club because that’s the kind of supporters that we are… This Saturday marks our last game of 2016 as we make the short trip into Essex to face: Southend United, afterwards am sure many of us will go our separate ways to see in the New Year… Have a great evening lads and lasses, yet remember we’ve had enough RIP threads this year and in the famous words of Dave Lockwood; stay safe and keep the faith!!
The OppositionName: Southend United |
Manager: Phil Brown
Ground: Roots Hall
For our opponents this Saturday; 2016 has been a bit of a steady year… After mounting a Play-Off challenge last time round, the 2015-16 season fell away for the Shrimpers which saw them ending up in 14th place and Phil Brown was left with a rebuilding job when long term players: Daniel Bentley and Jack Payne left for Championship clubs.
This season and that rebuild showed at the beginning and it took until mid-October for the Southend season to truly get going and with just three wins and two draws prior to a home win against Chesterfield, the Shrimpers were stranded in the relegation zone. They say though that a single win can change everything in Football and that has certainly be the case for Southend, they’ve yet to lose again and six further wins have seen them jump straight into the Play-Offs… With Phil Brown’s job no doubt coming into question from some quarters at the beginning of the season quite simply that is how you respond!!
Charlton Team NewsJust one day after this match, the transfer window will open and we’ll no doubt see the back of Ademola Lookman who is surely off to Everton and so will be protected ahead of the transfer as Jonjo Shelvey was when to too made the move to Merseyside…
In addition with Bristol Rovers coming up at the Valley on Bank Holiday Monday; Karl Robinson will need to shuffle his squad to ensure that tiredness doesn’t creep into his ranks and with the team already depleted with injuries we could see some of the youth players given their opportunity to shine and so create any excuse for money to be saved this January.
Phillips
Foley | Bauer | Teixeira | Fox
Aribo | Crofts | Ulvestad | Chicksen
Magennis | Ajose
Substitutes Bench: Mitov | Johnson | Konsa | Jackson | Botaka | Hanlan | Ahearne-Grant
PredictionDespite their lack of early form our opponents this Saturday have only lost two home matches this season to date so victory will be a tough ask for an already depleted Charlton side… Either way with only one side in the League having drawn more than us, we need to find those wins from somewhere.
Comments
Wembley in may for the play off finals.
2017 will be our year.
2-0 defeat
Managerial clash .. Geordie v Scouser .. Phil Brown has got the shrimp(er)s playing like
man eating sharks, shows what can be done with a squad of cheap but shrewd signings, they're bang in form ..
Robinson and his men merry MUST be more confident after the MKD win .. I have seen a few home and a lot of away games ... we are better away ... Sooooooo .. again, a draw must be on the cards ... decent @ForeverAddickted's selection, but I'd keep Konsa at right back
Southend United 1 v CAFC 1
Expecting us to get hammered.
But we'll scrape 3 points. Weirdly
2-1 Southend.
Happy New Year FA
For some reason I am disappointed I can't go to this one.
I'd have thought that they'd have been the other way around (or at least the same) seeing that NYE is just a typical Saturday fixture
Southend seem to have quite a bit of experience in their squad
Anton Ferdinand, Simon Cox, Zavon Hines, Marc Fortuné, ahem Nile Ranger, not hopeful as they are playing well at the moment
2-1
Solly Pearce ? ?
? Kashi Jackson Holmes
Novak Ajosé
We're just not that good and I feel the win over MK Dons papered over the cracks
KR's been told off by RD for the Millwall result and presumably would've been told how to fix it by RD based on Thomas Driesen so expect a defeat
But
Win this and beat millwank and my confidence just might return.
Pleeeeease