Shrewsbury Town v Charlton Athletic
Tuesday 28th February 2017 … 7:45pm Kick-Off
Referee: Michael Salisbury
IntroductionTwo defeats at the Valley in quick succession have left our season with almost little purpose… We sit eleven points from the Play-Offs and with games running out it appears as though our hopes of instant promotion back to the Championship is over… Instead with just eight points separating us and the bottom four, it appears as though we now need to be watching over our shoulders and hoping we can pick up a handful of wins which’ll make us safe from another potential relegation.
Games though continue to come thick and fast and following our match against Bury on Saturday we now make the trip to Shropshire and Shrewsbury, this Tuesday its pancake day and a chance for Karl Robinson to flip our season over once more and recover from what has been a disastrous February.
The OppositionName: Shrewsbury Town |
Manager: Paul Hurst
Ground: The New Meadow
Back on a late August evening; the Shrews made a visit to the Valley for what was our second home match of the season… that day showed what a good signing: Ricky Holmes would be, a first half showing from our winger saw two spectacular goals with one coming directly from a corner… Johnnie Jackson would get the other goal in what was a 3-0 victory and walking away from the Valley I felt certain that Shrewsbury would be in danger of relegation this term.
Since that fixture though, the Shrews have slowly gotten themselves into gear… Micky Mellon the Manager at the Valley was gone by October and replacing him was the Grimsby Manager (Paul Hurst) who’d taken his side back into the Football League last term. The turn of the year has seen just three defeats for our opponents and face the Addicks tonight, just four points adrift… Our last outing at the New Meadow saw Charlton taking a 3-0 half-time lead in the League Cup, if that happens again, lets hope we can hold on this time. At least there is no Bally Smart this time round.
Charlton Team NewsIt wasn’t confirmed in the Press Conference prior to the Bury game, yet the Addicks decided against appealing the Chris Solly red card which means he’ll now be unavailable until the Scunthorpe United game next Tuesday… With players being constantly rotated its difficult to see (or predict) a settled Charlton side, yet at the end of our match against Bury, Stephy Mavididi was taken off on a stretcher so will surely be missing and will no doubt be replaced by Josh Magennis who was rested with a place on the bench on Saturday.
Rudd
Byrne | Konsa | Teixeira | Page
Forster-Caskey | Crofts
Botaka | Aribo | Holmes
Magennis
Substitutes Bench: Phillips | Dasilva | Jackson | Dijksteel | Novak | Watt | Chicksen
Comments
Please?
The players attitude will relect this with Shrewsbury rolling us over comfortably. They have a lot to play for fighting relegation.
Dijksteel and Jackson dominance in centre mid leads to late Hackett-Fairchild winner
What a sorry state of affairs to have to be saying that about Charlton in division 3.
Thanks Katrien!
With this manager anything is possible except a dignified silence.
#CaptainFantastic
I'd start with Jacko in the side otherwise it'll be rudderless again. Drop crofts for him or like the broken record I am play him as an old fashioned sweeper.
Rudd
Byrne | Konsa | Teixeira | Page
Jackson
Holmes | Forster-Caskey | Aribo | Botaka
Magennis
Jackson sitting there should give JFC and Holmes a chance to support Magennis, depending how The Shrews set up maybe give Holmes a free role like my name sake used to have.....
I can't see us winning this on a cold Tuesday evening, It'll either be a boring 0-0 or we might scrape a now famous 1-1 but I think more likely is a 2-0 defeat.
They haven't lost since 2nd Jan at home in the league, 0-1 against Fleetwood, since then they've beaten, Bradford, Oldham, Bury and Wimbledon. Four home wins on the bounce. In fact Other than Fleetwood you need to go back to Northampton on 22nd October I think for another home loss which was when they were managerless.
1.0 to the Shrews.
Not sure how you can drop Novak for Magennis on current form. Magennis looks disinterested. Novak at least appears to be trying, and he gets into decent positions.
But what the hell do I know. I thought we'd beat Bury.
What are the odds on us hitting the woodwork again?
Let's hope the team were inspired by Leicester's performance.
@ForeverAddickted did not name Bauer in his chosen few, is he injured or has he jumped ship ? ...
Difficult to know just what to think .. Robinson has come nowhere near an acceptable level as our manager, hopeless tactics and confused team selections .. like Bury and Oldham the Shrews are putting up a frantic fight against relegation and will likely be more motivated than our increasingly motley crew ..
however, never write off the hurt pride factor .. our players are surely hurting after recent performances and I am simply hoping that they (whoever 'they' are tonight) can get stuck in and show willing ... errrrrr .. YET another draw
Shrewsbury Town 2 v CAFC 2
But to say Magennis looks disinterested isn't fair. He looks more like he's lacking concentration a bit. Get the marker out and write it on his hand like Llera had.
A lot is made of the Robinson being at fault for results of late but the players need to look at themselves more than he does. His tactics lately have been clearly to go for the win.
Something I wonder if the players think about:
If the team play well and get some wins, will they get some fans back in the stadium?
The cheering of their names, making them feel good surely would help motivate them?
We've been creating tons of chances lately, but the players just aren't putting them away.
We've been getting in the right positions and making the wrong decisions.
Sure the players can be influenced by the manager, but the countless chances being thrown away are on them.
You make your own luck, these players seem to not want to.
Let's hope tonight spells a change in results, however I will not be surprised if the players don't turn up again.