Friday, April 21, 2006

Wandering stars?

Charlton's penultimate away game of this Premiership season is at The Reebok Stadium in a match against Bolton Wanderers.

Both sides have that end-of-season look about them - Bolton without a win in six games (with five defeats!) and Charlton so inconsistent its unbelievable!

The official website match preview is here.

Injuries will obviously confirm changes to the Charlton starting line up following the carnage that seemed to take place at The Valley last Monday; Marcus Bent, Jonathan Spector, Hermann Hreidersson (who has subsequently been banned anyway), and Jerome Thomas all limped away from that match, and Gonzalo Sorondo (groin) and Osei Sankofa (cut shin) also picked up injuries too. All of a sudden, the defence looks a little thin of bodies...

The team I expect Curbs to put out, presuming he plays 4-4-2, is therefore as follows -

Thomas Myrhe, Osei Sankofa, Chris Perry, Gonzalo Sorondo, Chris Powell, Darren Ambrose, Matt Holland, Bryan Hughes, Radistan Kishishev, Jay Bothroyd, Darren Bent.

There is an option to switch to 4-5-1 in this game, with Dennis Rommedahl playing instead of Bothroyd, but it may be that Curbs wants the added height of Bothroyd to counter Bolton's airial threat.

Even though Bolton are on a tough run themselves, this is not an easy game by any means for the Addicks. Charlton have lost the last four matches against Bolton, so anything like a positive result will be a big bonus. Bolton will be without El Hadji Diouf, who is still not fit according to manager Sam Allardyce.

My one-to-watch in this match is Osei Sankofa, who will probably make his third appearance for Charlton in the game at the Reebok. Osei has waited a very long time for his chance, and I'm hoping he will take it and show the potential in the first team that he so obviously has.

Pedro45's score prediction is a little predictable itself - a 2-0 defeat. With the defence stretched, I can't see Charlton containing the Bolton forwards (or midfield) and I think they will concede at least twice. But in this most unpredictable of seasons - up, down, up, down - anything could happen and we could get our first away win since October. Now wouldn't that be quite nice!

Up the Addicks!

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