Often Partisan

Charlton Preview in Association with EZE Group

Gary Rowett will lead his players out at St Andrew’s for the last home game of the season against Charlton Athletic hoping to complete back-to-back wins and push the team closer to the top 10 finish he so desires.

Charlton Athletic

The Addicks come into the game 9th in the table – three points and ten goals better off than Blues. Israeli coach Guy Luzon has seen his charges lose once in their last seven games but three of their last four were draws and they’ve only kept one clean sheet in ten.

Jordan Cousins is likely to come in for the injured Alou Diarra who picked up a knee injury in the win over Leeds last weekend.

Blues

Rowett has hinted that he may bring in players for this fixture to allow them a swansong prior to the end of their Blues careers – which could apply to Nikola Zigic, who is out of contract at the end of this season.

Fabbrini and Shinnie are both doubts and Reece Brown could come into the squad if the Italian cannot make it back in time with his new facemask after his previous one was snapped by a Nathaniel Chalobah punch.

Betting

Although I think Blues will change things I think David Cotterill will start and he’s my tip for first goalscorer – which would be his 10th of the campaign. He’s available for 11-1 with BetVictor and by clicking this link you can help this site.

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27 Responses to “Charlton Preview in Association with EZE Group”

  • Dave Mann says:

    There 10th Dan and if forest and Wednesday both loose and we win by 5 goals then we go 10th so lets have a go and make it I think 8 games unbeaten at home to take in to next season . Kro

  • StaffsBlue says:

    This is a dead rubber game anyway, so why not take the chance to try a few different players. We can always keep the big guns on the bench for if things don’t go our way.

    For instance, I’d like to maybe see Gunning given a game next to Morrison. Or, play Grounds at centre back and give Hancox a run. Brown deserves a chance, either deep, or in the No.10 role. Why not try Duffy on the right, with Cotterill on the left, as they did last year at Doncaster. Finally, I’d like to see Matt Green get a go, either with Donaldson, or Zigic.

    • Shirley Blue says:

      GR will play his strongest possible side to give us maximum chance of three points and as high a league finish as possible – He will want a top half finish. IMO that is absolutely the right thing to do. He will be trying to attract better players to the club in the summer and the higher we finish the easier it is to sell the club to them. Despite it being the end of the summer none of the current first team players will be happy to be dropped. If the likes of Duffy were good enough to be in the team they would be in on merit rather than having their loans at the likes of Chesterfield cut short. I had enough of constant changes under LC. We are managed by a professional now.
      Good luck to Leicester btw. They kept us up last season by beating Doncaster last day when they had already won the title and the Vile are not safe yet.

  • StaffsBlue says:

    Spector in for Kiernan.. Davis in for Gleeson. The rest as you’d expect.

  • Shirley Blue says:

    I thought we were excellent today. We completely dominated the game and with some better final balls we could have murdered them. Tesche is quality but there will be plenty of clubs in for him. Fabbrini is a joy to watch but similar situation I fear. Just a mention for Jonathon Spector who has had a lot of stick on here – he was excellent today. Davis was a significant physical presence in midfield but Gleeson is a better passer. Being in the top half is a fantastic achievement – loads of credit to GR, his staff and the players.

  • StaffsBlue says:

    It should have been a landslide.. but 1-0 is still 3 points. At the start of the season, I predicted a 10th-12th place finish (I think Dave Mann said the same) so it won’t be too far away.

    Well done to all the players and coaches.

    • Shirley Blue says:

      Do you honestly think we would have been in this position if there hadn’t been a change in management?

      • StaffsBlue says:

        That old chestnut again? I have never once said we’d finish 10th-12th with the old manager in charge. What I said at the start of the season was that this squad were good enough to. I also said that if we were in or around the bottom 3 after a dozen or so games, we’d have to think about a change… and I did say it was time for a change before the manager was sacked. I hope that’s the last time I have to explain it SB.

        • Shirley Blue says:

          I don’t think the squad at the start of the season was good enough to get us mid-table. I would argue that GR bringing in Morrison straight away was absolutely key to stabilising an appalling defence. Also bringing in Tesche gave us some real Championship quality in central midfield.

        • Tony says:

          OOHH Staffs thats a bit misleading, we would have been relegated with Clark in charge no soubt about that at all.
          Full credit to Mr Gary Rowett for the magnificent job he has done, hes taken a bunch no hopers lacking in confidence and turned them into a comfortable mid table side.
          In my opinion credit should also go to myself, Art Shirley Chris, and a handful of others who never relented in our persuit of getting that man the sack, eventually the Greek had to listen, and he did.

          • StaffsBlue says:

            I agree Tony, we probably would have gone down with him in charge, but that’s not my point. I’ve said all along that I will always give the manager my support, whether it’s LC, GR, or Frankenstein. I just don’t think that slagging off managers or players does anyone any good. I will support every manager we have, until they’ve gone, then I couldn’t give a toss about them. I certainly won’t become obsessed about them to the point where I can’t go more than a day or two without mentioning their name. Rowett is the present manager and he gets my 100% support.. until he’s gone.

  • Vicarpoof says:

    What GR has done for Birmingham City since coming in could easily be the subject of a new Disney movie.
    Well done to the players as well who have no doubt had to work harder in training for the new manager who has improved their fitness to the extent that they are still trying to score after the full 90 minutes.
    There has to be a mention for the rest of the back room staff and the off field employees too. Great work in a time when their careers are under threat due to the on going issues in HK.
    Let’s hope in the coming years some investment in the club will improve things even more and give us Bluenoses something to look forward to.
    KRO

  • RichardM says:

    When you look at GR’s record, even if Blues had been bottom of the table with zero points when he started, he would still have kept us up. Phenomenal achievement really.

    I think we also have to acknowledge Lee Clark, just for the fact that he had very little funds, but still had the vision to sign players like Donaldson, Grounds, Cotterill, Davies, Caddis, Shinnie and the like. Just a shame he didn’t have the same management nous as GR to make them into a team.

  • marc says:

    Have to agree with RichardM regarding Lee Clark, crap as a manager but could spot a decent player as shown by the players he brought in. Should have kept him as a chief scout.

    • Shirley Blue says:

      So based on that logic it was our Chief Scout who actually found Donaldson, Davis etc not LC. I believe that was Malcolm Crosby.

      • StaffsBlue says:

        Does the scout toddle off on his own, look at a player, then recommend him to the manager… or does the manager detail the scout to go and look at certain players and report back? I personally have no idea how it works. Does anyone else on here?

        • steve says:

          I thought the scouts recommended players to the manager. I would have thought the manager tells them what type of player he wants and the scout scouts them.

        • steve says:

          I would have thought the manager tells the scout what type of player he wants,and the scout scouts them.

        • Hillfield Blues says:

          Ultimately it is the manager that instigates a signing,not the scout. It’s clear that LC will not be afforded any credit whatsoever staffs so don’t bother. Quite why the usual suspects keep banging on about this LC thing is beyond me. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see he was no Sir Alex but I think he is taking the blame for a lot of the negative stuff that was going on at the club during his time. You’d have had no takers for the job from anywhere at the time and it just maybe the case that In GR we have unearthed something a bit special.

          • Tony says:

            Hillfielld he was the major cause of the instability, I still cant get over the fact that when he knew the end was nigh he went runnung to the fat controller to save his job. A man totally without honour, pride, who cared only for the dosh every month, god how glad I am hes gone fdor ever.

  • steve says:

    WTF.Tells me i’ve already said it,so i rewrite it and then it prints both.

  • Shirley Blue says:

    Anyway it’s been a good day. We looked like a good side today and despite all the crap off the pitch there is genuine hope for the future. There is also hope that we might have another local derby to look forward to next season with today’s Premier League results.

    • steve says:

      I,m really pleased with the way the season turned out. We were on the way down until GR came in. He added a bit more quality and completely changed the teams fortunes.And also changed the mood amongst the fans.

  • anolden says:

    In the daily mail for wednesday 29th april there was an article by martin samuel in which he questioned the gap between the premiereship and the championship. From the moment that the big boys {led by the then chairman of the villa ] there has been a gap with a handful of teams dominating the top positions and the rest being thankful to have survived. Promoted side have managed to survive a season or so but no club have broken into the top challengers,although southampton have done extremely well . The question that he puts forward is that there appears to be a league which is not creating challengers for promotion.
    From a position where teams representing towns like Ipswich, Notts Forest, Derby county led by managers of the calibre of Robson and Clough could compile teams by skillful purchasing and managing, there appears to be new wave of wize kids and get rich quick merchants hired by those
    possessed of sums of wealth beyond just being rich, where footballers earn in a week more than a working man might earn in a life time. So what am I stating ? the realisation that the whole world of football is no more the turning up on a Saturday afternoon and laying down coins and hoping that your team will do well. Perhaps have a. cup run Perhaps a team is created by a manager with the skill to get a team together . My view is that those days will never return . I was lucky the game i loved was in the hands of people who loved the game We were never a big club although we have a city with second biggest population I am sure that the 15 or so thousand still turning up will believe the future will be better. but it does seem to me that Mr Samuel`s.view is that ” the race is not to the bottom,is certainly to mediocrity”


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