PREVIEW: Charlton Athletic v Wanderers

Wanderers head to the capital for a lunch-time kick-off against Charlton Athletic in a game live on Sky Sports to end a busy January.

The Whites are looking for back-to-back wins after their mid-week 10-man victory over Forest Green in their seventh game of the month.

A fifth win since the turn of the year would see Ian Evatt’s men draw level on points with Derby County, who currently sit fourth in the table.

Mid-table Charlton – under former Wanderers’ defender Dean Holden – play their first game in a fortnight after their scheduled trip to Peterborough last weekend was frozen off.

Manager quotes:

Ian Evatt: “We showed a different side to us on Tuesday to win the game. To be successful as a football team you need to show different sides to your game.

“Hopefully by Saturday we’ll have a couple of new recruits in the building and we’re ready to go again.

“They’ve had that manager bounce. He’s a very experienced football man, a very good man, and everybody around these parts speaks very highly of him.

“We know it’s going to be a challenging game. They have a good squad of players and have been going well.

“We’re up for the challenge. We know it’s going to be a challenge and we’ll go there, concentrate or ourselves and our own performance and hopefully come back with some points.”

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Charlton Athletic manager Dean Holden:

“Ian has had them for a few years now and they’ve had some success together including promotion. They’ve got a real distinct style of play - when you think about what Bolton used to be compared to where they are now it’s at the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

“They’re really expansive in the way that they keep the ball and they like to have high ball possession. They have a lot of energy in midfield and, as I say, Dion Charles will run all day for his team.

“It’s a difficult game for us but we proved in our last one against Barnsley that we’re up for the challenge. It’s live on Sky and we want to show ourselves in the best possible light in front of a national audience. We proved at Old Trafford what we can do as a football club.

"We want to show people that are watching on Saturday that there will be a big crowd in at The Valley and we can really rally round together and push for results for this club.”

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Team news:

Wanderers will have new striker signings Victor Adeboyejo and Cameron Jerome available after signing on Friday.

Top scorer Dion Charles is also available after his red card in the mid-week win over Forest Green was overturned due to a case of mistaken identity.

However, the three-match ban was transferred to Elias Kachunga who is therefore unavailable.

Striker Dan Nlundulu remains sidelined with a hamstring injury to join Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Jack Iredale on the sidelines.

Charlton could give a debut to on-loan Ipswich defender Matt Penney with Mandela Egbo injured. Goalkeeper Joe Wollacott remains out with a finger injury.

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Form guide:

Fifth-placed Wanderers bounced backed from a first loss in nine games with their mid-week 1-0 win over Forest Green Rovers.

That result saw the Whites set a new club record of seven successive home clean sheets.

They now seek a fifth away win of the season on a ground where they are unbeaten on their last three visits.

Charlton have won their last three league games – wrapped around a Carabao Cup quarter-final exit to Manchester United – to climb to 15th in the table.

That run followed a draw and a league loss in Dean Holden’s first two games in charge after the 43-year-old took over on the back of a six-game winless run in League One.

Officials:

Referee: Carl Brook

Assistant referees: Garry Maskell, Alex James

Fourth official: Lee Swabey

Kick-off:

Saturday 12.30pm

Tickets:

Pay-on-the-day is available for Wanderers’ fans with details HERE

Coverage:

The game is being shown live on Sky Sports with commentary available on BWFC iFollow with an audio match pass available HERE

Read Time: 4 mins