Fill the Valley

Rejuvenated Charlton face the league leaders, Plymouth Argyle, at the Valley on Saturday in what should be the toughest game of the season so far. Thomas Sandgaard and Raelynn Moloney will be flying in and the club have launched a ticketing effort to #fillthevalley. 

This would have failed a month ago under Adkins when you couldn't have given free tickets away, but such has been the impact of Caretaker boss Johnnie Jackson, that the three free tickets per season holder are flying off the shelf and a near full-house is expected. 

Argyle are bringing a decent following and with 2500 sold already, there should be a tasty atmosphere. Using season ticket holders was a good way to try and ensure those given freebies tickets actually show up on the day - so often when the club dishes out large numbers of comps, disappointingly large numbers of recipients don't bother to make the journey on the day. Hopefully too, those attending will have more affinity with the game and Charlton (through links with season ticket holders) than the usual comp brigade who have a tendency to annoy regulars. From a personal experience, they often arrive late (sometimes well into the game), have no idea how rows and numbers work and are oblivious to other fans watching the match as they show no sense of urgency to get seats. As for turning up sporting other clubs colours.....

Anyhow, hopefully the empty seats won't be so obvious and the atmosphere not too dulled by the uninitiated. On current form we look like we may be in for a hard afternoon. If you consider our injury depleted squad will also be without our main striker and our best available defender, the task looks ominous.

At the tail end of last season we walloped Argyle 6-0 away. Assuming a change of manager or wholesale change of players, I was surprised to see that Ryan Lowe is still the manager and the team that won 4-1 at Accrington on Saturday contained eight of the side we beat in April.

So, will they be fired-up for revenge, or will our boys be confident of picking up where they left off at Home Park? Plymouth are playing a high pressing game under Lowe and that was our downfall under Atkins because we sat back and invited pressure. Jackson will aim to counter that and his formation may be critical. Without Famewo, we are going to have to rely on Pearce and Elerewe and I don't think we can risk three  at the back. I'd go 4-1-3-2 with Dobson in front of the  back four. Hopefully Leko is fit to return and play in a striking role alongside Washington. We will also need a much bigger game from Gilbey (who excelled in the 6-0) than we got at Burton. 

I'd go MacGillivray, Gunter, Pearce, Elerewe, Purrington, Dobson, Lee, Gilbey, Jaiyesimi, Washington and Leko.