Date: Saturday, 30th January 2016 Kick Off: 3:00pm Venue: New York Stadium We head into two crucial games which will ultimately determine our fate next season. Anything less than six points would see us return to League One after a four year absence, two years after Duchâtelet took over the club and two years into his flawed experiment. A loss against Rotherham could see us hit rock bottom of the championship come 5pm; the toxic atmosphere and position something that we have to go back to the Phil Parkinson era to have experienced. Last night we were treated to a thrilling interview with Chris Powell which reconfirmed much of what we all knew about Duchâtelet. The protests must continue, getting bigger and bigger or we do risk next season seeing a drop between 5,000 - 7,000 season ticket holders as predicted by CASTrust. This fixture is something to the club has tried to get fans to attend, with free transportation to and from the New York Stadium, however given that tickets will be sold on the day, this match I foresee will not have a great turnout. **Correction, club have confirmed that approx. 700 fans will travel to Rotherham United. In another bizarre decision by the club, we see Tony Watt move out on loan to Blackburn Rovers and deal for highly rated centre back and defensive midfielder Reece Oxford. The Tony Watt loan move now leaves us with very little decent striking options moving into this critical game. I fear that we will see no more incoming players, or ones that we have heard of. Joe Piggott has joined Luton Town on loan, which it is expected that his contract at Charlton Athletic will not be renewed. The Opposition Rotherham United have seen a bit of a climb up the league in recent weeks, which ex-Charlton player Neil Redfearn must now be able to sleep more easier putting a little bit distance between his team and the relegation pack. His number one aim now would be not to be pulled back into the relegation race, with him thinking that this game is most definitely a seven pointer (we have such a poor goal difference). The have over the transfer window added to their squad by signing Chris Dawson, who Redfearn worked with during his spell at Leeds United. Current Form Rotherham United have won three out of their last five matches at the New York Stadium, beating Hull City, Brighton & Hove Albion and an impressive victory against Bolton Wanderers. Their last home loss came against Queens Park Rangers, themselves finding a bit of form under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. What is keeping Rotherham United towards the bottom of the pack is their atrocious away form. Our away form is not something to shout about either. We have the worst away form across all professional leagues, conceding 19 goals in our last five matches, being battered by Hull, Huddersfield and Burnley; the latter two struggling with scoring at the time we played them. Head-To-Head Record This is the fourth encounter that has occurred between the two clubs in recent times, prior to last season the last time the clubs met was 31st Jan 1983 when both were present in the Old Division Two. The three encounters all ended in 1 - 1 draws, two of these times Charlton surrendering their lead over Rotherham. Club Updates Our newer interim head coach spoke to the press on Thursday and had the following to say about the upcoming match against Rotherham United: Team Lineup Given that José Riga has said that "he's his own man" it seems that we can have any sort of team line up. Given our outgoings I think that we'll have a slightly different line up to Blackburn Rovers: please log in to view this image Odds The bookies are not giving us much chance to win this game. Given the last three encounters, a draw is looking like an enticing bet, with a £10 bet on 1 - 1 returns a nice £75 in your pocket. Fixtures & Current Table A lot of the Championship fixtures are off due to the FA Cup. There is only three games this Saturday, with four being played out on Tuesday. Outcome I think we have seem a massive improvement defensively from the Blackburn Rovers match. We still lack anything up front, and since Watt has been shipped out, we are lacking even more. I thinking that this will be another one in the books as a 1 - 1 draw. It's a shame as we really need to win this to have any realistic chance of staying in the Championship. #SupportTheTeam #DestroyTheRegime
Jackson and JBG will not start and Makienok, Lookman and Bauer will not even be on the bench. Apart from that, I agree with your forecast. please log in to view this image I forecast: Henderson Solly Teixera Lennon Fox Kennedy Cousins Poyet Bergdich Vetokele Ghoochannejhad Subs: Pope, Sarr, Holmes-Dennis, Charles-Cook or JBG, Jackson, Umerah, Harriott Yes, I know. Don't shoot the messenger.
More creativity in my ballbag than that midfield. They will get bullied as all four players are very lightweight. 7-0 Rotherham
A bit worried about how we will fill the void left by Vaz Te and TWWW. Richard Murray's silly boast about backing the manager in january seemed idiotic at the time as Fraeye was'nt really a manager, but now we have Riga, they choose to back him by shipping players out. The sum of signings is now Relegation Roger and the much changed Poyet, plus the new guy Teixeira. For me today's game hinges on how bad Rotherham are. If they can get it together, we could be in serious trouble. And sadly, looking at recent decisions from the regime, maybe it would be for the best.
Has Vaz Te officially left? I'm hoping Riga will have started to get his ideas across, and am perhaps a bit more confident than I would have been a week ago. We should pretty much match them player for player - so going for an optimistic 1-1 too. Hell, some one other than Harry Lennon to score.
I have a feeling we will go one up through Igor and lose 2-1. I didn't put a bet on it so it's bound to happen
Did you take the club up on the offer of free travel? Read there was a disappointing turn out on the coaches leaving bexley.
2-1 at hall time - we're winning! How refreshing to see our two strikers score too. Happy for Igor especially.
Nah decided to drive up. Vetokele has been excellent, JBG very unselfish with the 2nd goal. Lennon and Fox the weak links
Excellent today! Solly back to his best, Henderson with two great saves, Lennon and Texeira solid (silly to give away penalty), fox shaky but better than usual. JBG much better than he has been this season and got himself two assists. Cousins made an impact and a lovely through ball for JBG to set up Igor, Jacko was Jacko, kept the team disciplined. Igor was class first hour faded towards the end but he is getting closer to the player we first signed now he is fit and getting minutes under his belt, absolutely delighted he got a goal for himself and defo deserved it. Mak won everything and got himself two goals so fair play to him, if he plays like that every week we have a good partnership up top. Berg had a good game and got himself an assist, fair play to him for coming back into the team and making an impact. Lookman back with a goal, Reza looked up for it when he came on. All round a great performance. Just makes you despair that we wasted three months on that clown Karol. We would certainly have a few more points if we brought in Riga who has a clue about tactics. Still a long way to go and feel we need a creative midfielder and Striker, but there are positives to take from that game. Next week is vital and we need to win.
Amazing. No matter the oppositions league position - to go and win 4-1 away (to be fair, their home form is impressive too) is brilliant. I just hope Riga is backed with reinforcements now. That win will go some way to re-building confidence, a few fresh faces before next week will also do the trick. Still, Roland out.
