Great thread again RTB! This will be a more difficult game than Charlton's recent form would indicate. They may have lost their last 5 games, but they were all against teams around us and without some of their better players, so we need to be on our guard. A similar attitude and performance to last week and we'll be a match for anyone. A win will do wonders for our confidence ahead of 3 very winnable games. We've got to take it one game at a time and see where that gets us. No good worrying what other teams will do, we just need to get our job done on Saturday. This is the start of a massive month, with 15 points up for grabs and I'm going for a 2-1 win. Stewart and Dajaku on the score sheet.
As often happens 'a club legend' has taken over, done well initially then failed to get results out of 'the lads'. Having lost their last two home game, with a total of 6-0, their confidence can't be too high and the crowd will hopefully be flat. Losing 4-0 at home is hard to take. Jackson has just been given a vote of confidence so another defeat would test the chairman's resolve. They're dropping towards the relegation zone and could be five points off third bottom by Saturday night. Having Stockley back will help them but he's not played since December and our defence has finally clicked into place. Defoe will play a part imo but a quick start is important to sicken their crowd. I'm going for 2-0, another clean sheet with a Pritchard special getting us off the mark. Haway the Lads!!!
I would be tempted to start with the same as last week to give us a foothold in the game and hopefully another quick start, then bring on the likes of Clarke, Roberts and maybe Defoe to finish them off
Totally. They carried out Neil's instructions to a T and gave Wigan no room to manoeuvre which led to the win. Hopefully they can do that again
IMHO, if we are to have a decent chance of making the play-offs ( other than our rivals for a spot losing all their games) we need to keep clean sheets. As Denver Hume has left, there is only Gooch who could play wing-back and he isn't a great defender. So by default we go with a back 4, the ones who played at Wigan have to go again, ( have to play together consistently to get some understanding) Patterson in goal and the same 2 in front of the back 4, or change Evans?
When a team puts in a performance like it did last week, they deserve their starting place. I'm sure they will know that any slacking and there's others chomping at the bit to replace them. 09 and Broadhead can't be too far off now.
Well after forecasting wins galore over the last few weeks and getting none right and then getting it so badly wrong last week when I thought we’d get humped at Wigan I’m going to say that we have no chance of getting 3 points at charlton and expect to get walloped again. Easy home win.
Going by the training shots, I would imagine it is McGeady that is no where near ready. O'Nien and Broadhead look sharp as f*ck.
Id agree. I think Onien will be closest, then Broadhead who they will need to be very careful with given he has a history with hamstring injures and Geads will be a good way off being considered yet.
Hmm, one of the biggest mistakes we made was not getting another striker in, as soon as possible after Broadhead was injured...(playing in a cup game at Arsenal grrr)
Alex Neil update: "I think it de-stressed them more than anything else," said Neil of the win at Wigan. "I think there's a misconception sometimes that players go home to their big houses and they're not that fussed, and that's certainly not the case. "It weighs on the players if they haven't won a game, because they understand the importance of it and they want to represent the team, the club, the city. I felt it de-stressed them. It certainly had a positive effect, that's for sure. "But what we don't want is to win against Wigan and then the next game be a bit of a damp squib. We want to make sure that we build on that win. "We want to create momentum between now and the end of the season, and make sure that we do a lot of the things we have been talking about and carry them out on a consistent basis." The win at Wigan also saw Neil clock up his first win at the fourth attempt since taking charge on Wearside. He admits the biggest challenge for him has been to get across his ideas to the players in a short space of time, having taken over with around two-thirds of the season already gone. Neil said: "The problem you have in football is that people think you walk into the building on a Thursday and you win the game on a Friday. "It doesn't work like that. There's a lot of work to do, a lot of preparation goes into it, a lot of organisation that you need to put in place behind the scenes for the starting XI and for the squad. "That base is normally built up in pre-season so as the season develops you are really just tweaking things from game-to-game. But I am basically trying to cram in 100 percent of the information into their heads when I have only got five percent of the time. "We've spoken about the dynamics of the squad which adds to that. The Wigan performance was a good one and a better one. What we did was negate some of the weaknesses that we have had in the previous couple of matches. "You only find those weaknesses out when you play in a certain style, and our style certainly changed for the Wigan game. I have to try and come up with a style and a strategy that will negate our weaknesses but also equally allow us to play to our strengths against the opposition." "I think the formation negated what I felt Wigan were good at, and it protected what had been a relative weakness for us in the previous two matches. "All in all, it suited us. What you'll tend to find is that over the course of a season I will make tweaks along the way in every game, whether it be personnel, strategy, or formation, just to optimise what we have on the pitch in terms of what I deem our strengths to be and also to make sure that we don't play into the hands of our opponents."
The lads to ****house a 2-1 win the morra with Ross Stewart getting booked for revealing a 'i can out sniff Shane Warne' T-Shirt after scoring a 96th minute winner
