Charlton Athletic Online

I loved the quip on another Charlton blog site today that the roof of the away end at Fratton Park had been blown away in the recent gales! If only it was that simple!

Anyone who does travel to Fratton Park on Saturday will have my sympathy, because the wind could be howling, rain pelting, and Charlton not very good either!

How do you approach an away game when you haven't won in the Premiership other than at The Valley for over 15 months? No easy answers for Alan Pardew there...

Are there any positives?

Well, Pompey haven't won for three matches; their worst run of the season.
Charlton's last away win was here in October 2005.
Dennis Rommedahl scored his last goal in that win.
Djimi Traore now plays for Portsmouth.
Ben Thatcher will be boo-ed at every touch and that could influence the play (maybe a Pompey player will be out for some sort of revenge and will get sent off?).

Negatives?

Andy Reid is injured.
Darren Bent is injured.
Luke Young is injured.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink isn't injured.
It's wet and windy.
Ben Thatcher will be boo-ed at every touch and that could influence the play.

The team that Pards chooses pretty much picks itself; so few options does he have up front or in midfield.

This is who it looks like for this weeks version of the Try To Win Away Game!

Scott Carson
Talal El Karkouri
Hermann Hreidersson
Souleymane Diawara
Ben Thatcher
Matt Holland
Amady Faye
Dennis Rommedahl
Darren Ambrose
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Marcus Bent

Subs from Myrhe, Sankofa, Zhi, Hughes, Sam, Kishishev.

This game could be a good one for the Addicks, or just another in the long line of turn-up-and-lose fixtures we have seen far too many of in 2006/7. If the team are able to bounce back after losing at home to Boro last week, now would be a good time to do it. It really is about time that some of them started earning their wages, and playing like a "team".

We need Rommedahl to know he can whup Traore every time; JFH and Big-Benty to believe that they can score goals at this level; the defence to look solid for 90 minutes; and Scotty to start making those great saves we have seen him capable of.

If not, then another comfortable home win looks on the cards, and Harry will go home a happy boy.

My one to watch is going to be Souleymane Diawara. Souley seemed to be on his way to the south coast a couple of weeks back, but a change of heart/UEFA rules/newspaper gossip being wrong meant he still plays in red. It is now up to him to show everyone that he is at the right club, and he can form a decent central defensive partnership with the man alongside him.

Pedro45's score forecast will either be a 2-0 defeat, or a 2-1 win? What do you think - heart or head? In days gone by this would be an obvious game to spring a surprise, but the "old" Charlton spirit seems to have been lost, and we don't get too many nice things happening in the Premiership these days. But, in the spirit of being an optimist (even though I'm a realist) I'm going for a 2-1 win, and a beaming AP at the end of the match.

Come on you reds!