Tomorrow's trip to AFC Wimbledon could prove a defining moment in Charlton's promotion push. After a poor run of recent results post-Karlan Grant's sale and with question-marks about the state of player's expiring contracts, Lee Bowyer is desperate for three points that may allow us to turn a corner.
Failure to win tomorrow and the next two away at Doncaster Rovers and at home to Portsmouth begin to look very tricky indeed. Doncaster are in form and know that they can push us into sixth by beating us and Portsmouth, who have been struggling of late too, will also come to the Valley looking for 'six points' and given our record in live Sky games and against sides with a noisy following they are probably favourites to get them. Peterborough are our other main rivals for a play-off place and after a stuttering couple of months, they now have Darren Ferguson back in charge and I suspect will now find some form, some goals and points.
So tomorrow then and what should be a comfortable away win on paper given league placings. However, the Wombles won away in the week with Joe Piggott notching a hat-trick. He and Scott Wagstaffe won't need any more motivation and we need to see the best from Lyle Taylor as he returns to his old stomping ground. It's very difficult to see where are goals are going to come from aside from Taylor. Midfielders do chip in every now and again but we have no-one in the Ricky Holmes sort of form that promises more than the odd goal. Igor Vetokele and Josh Parker will inevitably get the odd goal but the pair of them won't fill the Grant gap and neither look like play-off contender strikers.
So, I think it's hard to see us scoring more than one or two goals and I'd probably take one goal now if offered which means we need to keep a clean sheet. The other elephant-in-the-room tomorrow is Taylor's need to avoid another booking which would draw another suspension. Not easy to play down your natural aggressiveness, especially when up against former team-mates who will be out to goad him.
Failure to win tomorrow and the next two away at Doncaster Rovers and at home to Portsmouth begin to look very tricky indeed. Doncaster are in form and know that they can push us into sixth by beating us and Portsmouth, who have been struggling of late too, will also come to the Valley looking for 'six points' and given our record in live Sky games and against sides with a noisy following they are probably favourites to get them. Peterborough are our other main rivals for a play-off place and after a stuttering couple of months, they now have Darren Ferguson back in charge and I suspect will now find some form, some goals and points.
So tomorrow then and what should be a comfortable away win on paper given league placings. However, the Wombles won away in the week with Joe Piggott notching a hat-trick. He and Scott Wagstaffe won't need any more motivation and we need to see the best from Lyle Taylor as he returns to his old stomping ground. It's very difficult to see where are goals are going to come from aside from Taylor. Midfielders do chip in every now and again but we have no-one in the Ricky Holmes sort of form that promises more than the odd goal. Igor Vetokele and Josh Parker will inevitably get the odd goal but the pair of them won't fill the Grant gap and neither look like play-off contender strikers.
So, I think it's hard to see us scoring more than one or two goals and I'd probably take one goal now if offered which means we need to keep a clean sheet. The other elephant-in-the-room tomorrow is Taylor's need to avoid another booking which would draw another suspension. Not easy to play down your natural aggressiveness, especially when up against former team-mates who will be out to goad him.
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