Charlton Athletic v Burnley Saturday 22nd March 2014 3pm Kick-Off Referee: Oliver Langford So with one game in hand done and out of the way (following the excellent result against AFC Bournemouth on Tuesday night) we now return to the normality of the standard league fixture this Saturday as Charlton find themselves entertaining probably the surprise package of the season: Burnley. Of course very little was expected from Burnley this season and after finishing 11th last season along with losing highly rated top-scorer Charlie Austin to Queens Park Rangers in the summer many expected them to be scrapping for survival especially because of the 62-goals scored by Burnley last season⦠25-goals were scored by Austin with Martin Paterson (who also departed to Huddersfield) as second top-scorer with eight and Junior Stanislas next in the scoring charts with just five. Even with the exit of Charlie Austin⦠Burnley havenât exactly gone on a spending spree either with the likes of Tom Heaton (Goalkeeper) signing from Bristol City and Scott Arfield (Midfield) from Huddersfield so credit must surely go to Sean Dyche this season for a tremendous job partly because since their 3-0 victory over the Addicks in the reverse fixture back in September⦠Burnley have failed to drop out of the top three and currently sit in second place⦠Eight points clear of Queens Park Rangers. 28.09.2013 â Burnley 3-0 Charlton Athletic Along with the result away at Leicester two weeks ago, the defeat against Burnley has turned out to be our worst of the season (proving that defensively the Addicks have strong whilst in attack the Addicks have been lacking)⦠Goals from Ings and Vokes (2) settled the affair which Charlton were never really in contention for. Burnley since Then As said above... Since their victory over Charlton in September, Burnley have yet to drop out of the top three and impressive results have come including being the first side to beat Queens Park Rangers this season (winning 2-0)⦠Not known for scoring many in matches most of their games have been won by either 1 or 2-goals with victories over Charlton, Birmingham and Derby (3-0) as their biggest wins⦠A 2-0 defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion in August was their biggest defeat of the season and have only lost on three other occasions this season (all coming on the road with the last of those defeats at Middlesbrough in December) Goals have come from Danny Ings (20-goals) and Sam Vokes (18-goals) which one of the most lethal partnerships in the Football League this season which was capped off the other night with Ings winning the Championship Player of the Year award⦠Keep those two quiet and you have to look to Scott Arfield as the next highest scorer with just eight goals⦠terrible, wouldnât even want that at Charlton!! (Cough!) Head to Head Meetings In terms of the Head to Head stats this Weekend it is actually a tie with neither team having more victories than the other which means both Charlton and Burnley have won 22 games each⦠Of course there has only been the one important fixture when back in 1947 Charlton were victorious over Burnley in the FA Cup Final winning 1-0 thanks to a Chris Duffy goal⦠(Twelve ties have finished as a draw) Unfortunately you only have to go back to the 2007/2008 season when Burnley last did the double over Charlton winning 3-1 at the Valley and 1-0 at Turf Moor. Charlton Team News With Leon Cort playing another 70-minutes in the U21s Friendly against Norwich City (Charlton lost 3-2) midweek heâll now be closer to appearing on the bench for the Addicks yet even though Jose Riga has tinkered with the Attack / Midfield over the last three games the back five should remain unchanged after keeping all three clean-sheets since Riga took charge. Callum Harriott limped off the pitch prior to half-time against AFC Bournemouth so could be a doubt whilst Astrit Ajdarevic and Reza Ghoochanneijad could come back into contention after being rested in the same fixture. Possible Team to Face Burnley Hamer Wilson â Morrison â Dervite â Wiggins Cousins â Poyet Ajdarevic â Jackson â Obika Church Substitutes Bench Thuram â Nego â Cort â Green â Ghoochanneijad â Sordell â Tudgay A4Lâs Prediction: 1-0 (Obika)
Top notch as ever A4L After the positive impact Obika had on Tuesday I'd expect him to start. I very much like the look of your team but I can't imagine Riga going for it, so perhaps we'll see a 4-4-2 with Obika up top alongside Church. I hope Riga sticks with Cousins in the middle with Poyet, Jacko on the left and The Asteroid on the right. We may be able to nick a draw from this, provided we keep Vokes quiet. 1-1.
I'd rather not see Church start, runs around but they're never intelligent runs, would even pick Sordell over him.
Great work A4L, With Ings out through injury, I think there is a real opportunity to get something out of this game if we can keep Vokes quiet. I too like the look of your team, I wouldnt with this at all as it has the flexibility to change into 4-4-2 as the game wears on. Another 1-0 win for Charlton.....Morrison.
I think that's a bit unfair on him. Church's biggest problem is his powder-puff finishing, while his runs have the effect of pulling the opposition's defence all over the place, leaving space for others to exploit.
I think this is fair. With our timidness in front of goal, it was worth having someone with Church's industry to force mistakes of defenders to give us opportunities from throw ins and corners to get the ball into the box. If we were a team playing free flowing football creating chances at will, Church would be the first to be dropped.
Nice one A4L! My big thought on this is that I'll be there! My last game was Huddersfield in the cup last season, so I'm hoping for a better result tomorrow. So if you see some sad old man begging for coppers outside the ground, that's me!
Least if we dont win Ken you cant think to yourself "Well its me thats the jinx" cos we've barely won all season anyway
See you there Not expecting owt from this. Thought Burnley were OK at Turf Moor but very effective. And that's all that matters. They're not 10 points clear for nowt. The away game will suit them
Great stuff, A4L. Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I've got a crazy feeling that one of our strikers will score a goal today, probably Obika. Why not try Church on the right? We've tried everyone else. Prediction 1-1.
I hope they score today else I cant see them being picked for the match tomorrow as they'd have been rubbish in training
You won't get anything from burnley. Even without Ings their movement all over the pitch is the best in the division by miles. They will cut you to bits. Not a problem because we will be beating the wallies.
Afternoon all Charlton: Hamer; Wilson, Wiggins, Morrison, Dervite; Green, Cousins, Poyet, Jackson; Church, Obika. Subs: Thuram-Ulien, Wood, Nego, Fox, Ajdarevic, Ghoochannejhad, Sordell. Burnley: Heaton; Baird, Duff, Shackell, Mee; Stanislas, Marney, Jones, Arfield; Vokes, Barnes Subs: Cisak, Lafferty, Kightly, Treacy, Wallace, Long, Edgar So Harriott misses out with Obika coming in for him up front with Church, as we revert to 4-4-2. Green keeps his place on the right. COYA!
Hariott only out because injured. Feeble bench. Wood is the only one who could come on without weakening the side, although Ajdarevic might be good for a 30 minute cameo if we are still in the game at the hour mark. Although our games in hand would seem to give us an advantage, our lack of quality stand-ins may cost us as the games come thick and fast. Baird would have been a good loanee to solve our RB problem and let Wilson move forward. If we stay up, and Brentford don't come up, I would like to see us sign Judge. He was outstanding versus Orient at LM. Today: 1-2
