Charlton Athletic v Bradford City
Tuesday 14th March 2017 … 7:45pm Kick-Off
Referee: James Linington (Newport)
IntroductionSince the beginning of February the fixtures have been coming thick and fast… Yet like everything, sometimes it has to come to an end – This Tuesday marks the end of our midweek evening fixtures for the season as we play host to Play-Off chasers: Bradford City. The good news about tonight is recently; Charlton have had a strong record when dealing with the midweek games, of late we’ve lost against Oldham and Oxford yet we’ve lost on only one other occasion (Millwall) whilst a total of twelve points have been gained from further fixtures… Tonight though, don’t expect a winner as the two biggest draw specialists come together.
The OppositionName: Bradford City |
Manager: Stuart McCall
Ground: Valley Parade
32-games… 32-games is the combined matches that both Charlton and Bradford have drawn over the course of the season, one of those sides (Bradford) have managed to keep the defeats to a minimum and over the course of the season have managed to remain in Play-Off contention yet with the business end of the season now well and truly here, our opponents this midweek will need to pull a few more wins together to cement their place at the annual end of season extension.
Let’s have a look at the key men who have put together the Play-Off chase:
The Manager: Having reached the League Cup Final and having been promoted from League Two in the same season; Phil Parkinson’s time at Bradford was always going to come to an end and with the ex-Charlton boss moving to Lancashire in the summer; Bradford returned to ex-Player and Manager: Stuart McCall to try and lead them back into the Championship.
The Player: It’s Strikers who win matches and as per other previews I’m keeping with the same theme… With James Hanson moving to Sheffield United in January; Bradford were left to find a replacement… That new man is Charlie Wyke signed from Carlisle who in eight appearances for his new side has four goals. If the Bantams do want to go up this season, they’ll need Wyke and all others to be finding the back of the net.
Charlton Team NewsOn Saturday we faced Walsall and as we all know, that match ended in a 1-1 draw with the Addicks somehow salvaging a late draw against their West Midlands opponents – After the match; Karl Robinson confirmed that no specific formation or tactics had been used to get the draw so predicting the team for tonight’s match is nigh on impossible (not that it hasn’t been impossible over the last couple of years anyway).
Two confirmations though regarding players is that Josh Magennis is now out for three weeks yet scoring his second goal in as many matches, you’d expect Tony Watt to keep his place in the side – On Sunday afternoon, our U23s faced AFC Wimbledon in a cup competition… That fixture saw a 0-0 draw which saw the Addicks exit the competition yet Jason Pearce made his long awaited return from injury and whilst tonight will be too soon a return, we should hopefully have the Defender back in the side ahead of our fixture against the MK Dons.
Rudd
Byrne | Bauer | Teixeira | Chicksen
Ulvestad | Crofts
Botaka | Aribo | Holmes
Watt
Substitutes Bench: Phillips | Jackson | Dasilva | Dijksteel | Hanlan | Ahearne-Grant | Novak
Comments
3-0 to Bradford. Crowd 3245.
Just sell the club
We can use this game to signal that the play offs are there for the taking
Tarbuck said he fealt like a kid in a sweet shop when he came in but, as you say, the problem's been that it's been more like a Woolies Pick n Mix, so who starts is anyone's guess.
Whilst this has a draw written all over it, and in alluding to Bradford's place as curry capital of the UK, if we start all lukewarm and Korma like against the Vindaloo boys, then we could be in for a pasting, with KR ending up with Kolhapuri egg curry on his face.
Crowd 4500 (11,250 official)
Roland just sell the effing club.
Konsa I'd be surprised if he was fit. Of course... Thanks for pointing that out, have corrected
So... 1-1.
Robinson must realise by now that 4-4-2 is the preferred way of play for our present squad. If he continues to pursue his other mysterious formations he will just make it that much harder for the team to early achieve the precious points we need to secure safety.
COYR. Bring 3 points home and do it in style.
Can't see anything but another defeat 2 -1 to Bradford, KR blames the take over rumors are unsettling the players.
Joyous glimmers of hope this weekend as credible rumours suggest that Roland might be willing to sell the club to someone less stupid than him.
Meanwhile, Karl's been trying to distract us from his pitifully inept performance since taking over by waffling on about how hard the players will be working over the summer. I thought this was extremely rude - I'm sure Chris Powell is more than capable of deciding on an appropriate pre-season regime, it's really none of your business, scouser.
1-0 defeat, utter boredom, another wasted evening. Don't really care, I'm immune to disappointment now and my expectations are so low that if there is one entertaining moment in the entire game then I'll have got more than I expected. Just sell up and sling your hooks you parasites
1-1
1-1 draw and another point closer to safety.
3-1 to us.