After a fantastic result in midweek against Mansfield, Charlton is back at The Valley against Bristol Rovers tomorrow afternoon. The Mansfield game was not perfect although it was a 5-0 win, midfielder Darren Pratley injured his knee during the game which is a huge blow as he can cover centre-back along with centre-midfield but it’s not as serious as other injuries we have had to deal with this season, it looks it could be a few weeks until he is back. On Tuesday night Patrick Bauer made his first appearance in 12 games and he is expected to join the line up in this match.
Here some facts about our visitors Bristol Rovers
Founded-1883
Nickname-The Pirates
Ground-Memorial Stadium(12,296)
Manager-Darrell Clarke
Top Scorer-Ollie Clarke(4)
Bristol Rovers were founded as Black Arabs F.C. and then later went on to make two more name changes, Eastville Rovers and Bristol Eastville Rovers before settling on the name of how they are known now as Bristol Rovers.
The first time we played Rovers was back in 1921where The Pirates had a 4-2 win against the Addicks since then we have gone on to win 22 games as Bristol have equalled that tally. Our highest scoring game was in 1978 which was an astonishing 5-5 draw. Rovers have not beaten us since 2010 which was a 2-1 loss at the Memorial Stadium.
In team news we start with the visitors, on-loan goalkeeper Jack Bonham could be in the first-team lineup, captain Tom Lockyer could also be starting for The Pirates. Joe Martin is also a possibility whilst former Charlton player Tariq Holmes-Dennis looks to be out after just making one appearance this season.
Many injuries plague Charlton this week names such as Darren Pratley, Josh Cullen, Igor Vetokele and Lewis Page are all out injured, however, we have been handed a boost in the form of Patrick Bauer who played an hour against Mansfield in midweek could make the starting line-up after his knee injury.
For my prediction, I reckon we can thump these lot 4-0 Bristol have not won in their last four games and were also knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Barnet in midweek. They currently sit 21st in the league and have managed 4 wins from 18 games, if we can bring out our best tomorrow we could be in for a lot of goals.
Follow VitalCharlton on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter
@vitalcharlton