Time is of the essence for Bristol Rovers as they look to beat the dreaded drop down to League 1 and their two remaining home games will be key, starting with Saturday's fixture against Charlton Athletic.
After two straight defeats to Exeter and most recently at Southampton where they were sunk by a late goal the Gas must get back to winning ways. Sat in 22nd place in the division, effectively two points off safety with as they have a massive negative goal difference to overhaul, and with only four games left it is likely that they will require at the very least another seven points from their remaining matches.
In their last six Rovers have lost only the previous two games, going on a four game unbeaten run between the Notts County and Bournemouth fixtures, but what is most worrying is the fact that they have won only once in their last six home games and only three times under their last three managers this season, while scoring at a rate of just a single goal per game at the Mem has not helped at all. Those are unfortunate stats that have kept the Gas in the mire of the bottom four.
Charlton themselves have suffered a fall from grace in recent seasons. Having spent seven consecutive years in the Premiership they eventually dropped out of the top flight and have not gotten anywhere near getting back there ever since. Two seasons in the Championship lead to first an 11th placed finish before ending up bottom the following season. Last season saw the club lose out on penalties to Swindon in the play-off semi-finals but this term will not be one to look back on with any great pride as Charlton find themselves in the bottom half of the table, sat in 13th place.
Saturday's visitors have also had to deal with a change of management this term, though not to the extent we have seen at Rovers. In mid-January club legend Chris Powell was appointed as boss at The Valley, taking the club on an initial five game unbeaten run before things started to unravel. Since then there has been just one win for the former England international after an eleven game winless spell and with that solo recent win coming at home they have failed to claim victory in their last eight away trips, leaving Powell with ten defeats from his twenty games in charge and one win in the last fifteen.
In their last game the Addicks lost 1-0 to Huddersfield thanks to Joey Gudjonsson's 83rd minute free kick.
One opposition player that Rovers players and fans alike will recognise is Bradley Wright-Phillips who has already scored three goal against the Gas this season including the winner for Plymouth as the Pilgrims came from two goals behind to take all three points at the Memorial Stadium. His explosive pace and eye for goal have seen the forward score 21 times this term, seeing him currently standing in third place on the League 1 top scorers list and Rovers manager Stuart Campbell had this to say about the striker:
"Bradley Wright-Phillips is their main threat, as we saw in the two games he played against us for Plymouth.
"He is a real goal threat and the defenders will have to be on their toes to keep him quiet.
"I don't think the defenders will be worried that he has scored against us before, but it might make them more determined to stop him."
Rovers best player at Southampton last weekend was Harry Pell who has made a big impact on the side since returning from a loan spell at Hereford and he will be hoping to make an appearance against the club he spent twelve years with as he developed through the youth ranks. The young midfielder took to the professional pitch just once for the Pirates before Stuart Campbell's appointment, that was as a late substitute in a 3-0 defeat to Leyton Orient, and found himself shipped out to Hereford under Dave Penney where he made a good impression on the Bulls.
The loan spell was extended for a second month but was ended early as Campbell recalled Pell from his time at Hereford, one of his first acts as manager. Since then the Essex boy has made eight further appearances in a Rovers shirt, starting six times on either the right or in the centre, he did in fact take up the central attacking role playing just off lone striker Jo Kuffour against Southampton.
Despite Charlton's more recent record in higher divisions Rovers do have the lead in the overall head-to-head between the two sides, winning 22 of the 57 games played compared to the Addicks 19. The game between the clubs earlier in the season finished 1-1, Wayne Brown scoring his only goal thus far for Rovers as the Gas took a point against the team then sat second in the division. The League double last season was the first time in 17 seasons Rovers would meet Charlton and each returned with a home win from the fixtures, Charlton winning 4-2 at The Valley with Steve Elliott and Paul Heffernan on target at the Mem in a 2-1 win in front of the Sky TV cameras.
Will Hoskins will face another late fitness test as he looks to return from from an ankle injury suffered against Bournemouth.
Rene Howe will push to regain his place in the squad as he tries to regain the fitness lost when he was laid out with tonsillitis in recent weeks with youngsters Lamar Powell and Ellis Harrison, both of whom made their first team debuts against Southampton, will hope to be involved again.
Charlton will be without Goalkeeper Rob Elliot and full back Kelly Youga who both have knee injuries, winger Johnnie Jackson (Achilles) and striker Joe Anyinsah (ankle) are also out while central defender and captain Christian Dailly is suspended for the rest of the season.
They will, however, be able to welcome back goalkeeper Ross Worner to the bench as he recovers from a broken finger.
Stuart Campbell, caretaker boss of Rovers, knows how important Saturday is to his teams chances of safety, telling bristolrovers.co.uk:
"First and foremost Saturday is a must win game for us, from the start all I have done is taken it game by game, rather than looking at what other teams are doing.
"Everyone knows it is a must win game, it is a home game, and we only have two of those left. We will go out there, give 100%, and try and make sure that that happens.
"We have been focused all week on the game on Saturday, and how we can go out and win that. I am sure the crowd will get behind us and we will give it our all."
Charlton assistant manager Alex Dyer is hoping his side can put Rovers away as they look to finish the season on a high. He spoke to cafctv.co.uk and said:
"We know Rovers are down there fighting for their lives to stay in the league, but we won't be going there to do them a favour - we'll be going down there to win the game.
"They're not a bad side. We know we'll have to go there and work hard, and we've had a good day's training on Thursday.
"We'll come in on Friday morning and assess everything to see if anyone has any knocks. Then we'll pick the side before we travel down to Bristol."
No comments:
Post a Comment