Fleetwood make the long trip South this Saturday as they face Charlton Athletic at the Valley for the 3pm kick off.
Town will be looking to continue their positive performances under new head coach John Sheridan, but it won’t be easy against a Charlton side who will want to make sure they avoid a fourth consecutive defeat.
Last time out, the Londoners lost to a late goal to our neighbours Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.
John Sheridan’s pre-match thoughts
“The club is in a very good position to get into the play-offs.
“I know they’ve had a couple of bad results recently, but they have some good players and if we allow them time to dictate, they will punish us.
“I try to worry about us more than the opposition, but we will respect them, but go there and cause them problems which I’m sure we will do.
“We aren’t going down there to try and get a point, we are going there to get all three points!”
Charlton boss Karl Robinson’s thoughts
"I think we were playing well. We were a bit unlucky at Doncaster, then we beat MK, then we got blown away by Shrewsbury.
"Since then I thought we performed well on Saturday (against Peterborough) but didn't get anything at all.
"Then we performed absolutely horrendously on Tuesday (against Blackpool) and didn't deserve anything.
"There's a mixed bag of performances and when you look at it, we have conceded too many goals and not scored enough.”
We’ve Met Before
Charlton have met Fleetwood three times in the league, spanning less than two years. Last time out, Tariqe Fosu scored a hat trick as they beat Town 3-1 at Highbury in September. Bobby Grant scored for Fleetwood.
Our last trip to the Valley ended dramatically as Amari’i Bell scored in the seventh minute of stoppage time to salvage a draw after Ricky Holmes had opened the scoring in the first half. After Bell’s goal there was still time for Nathan Byrne to be sent off.
The only other game ended 2-2 at Highbury the season previous.
One to Watch
Northern Ireland international Josh Magennis has been firing in the goals for both club and country over the past two years and is in good form heading into Saturday’s game, having scored three times in February. The striker, who joined Athletic from Kilmarnock also had a prolific spell at Aberdeen, whom he joined from Cardiff City, his first professional club. Magennis is also an international player, being one of the main target men for Northern Ireland. Magennis’ goal in this same fixture last season saw him score his first Charlton goal.
Betting Preview
League betting partner Sky Bet have made Charlton favourites for this match, placing them at 11/10 to win, while Fleetwood are priced at 5/2. A draw is available at 12/5.
A 2-1 win for John Sheridan’s side is available at 11/1, while 1-0 is 8/1.
A good bet perhaps may be Ash Hunter to score first and Fleetwood to win 2-1, which produces odds of 60/1.
Paddy Madden is 9/4 to make it two goals in two, while a goal for Kyle Dempsey has odds of 10/1.
A full list of odds can be found at www.skybet.com. Please gamble responsibly.