West Brom Preview

West Bromwich Albion's away record does not look particularly frightening.

1 win in 11 games, and only 4 goals scored on their travels, which is the lowest in the premiership. Even doomed Sunderland have managed to find the net 9 times on the road so far. Surely we have nothing to worry about tomorrow...

There must have been a few Charlton fans who had similar feelings before last seasons corresponding fixture, and we went on to get well and truly put to the sword by Earnshaw in the last half an hour, the poison dwarf coming off of the bench to haunt the club who really should have signed him 4 years ago when we had the chance.

I know a group of long time away travelers who went to the Hawthorns earlier this season and although we eventually only won the game 2-1, they all came away saying that the first half performance was one of the best they had seen from Charlton for years and years. One of them even went on to comment that he expected this side to develop into the best Charlton team he has seen in 40 years of fandom.

Well, none of that has happened, but at least we seem to have rediscovered the 'winning ugly' habit.

We could conceivably have drawn or lost all of our last 3 home matches over the balance of play, but we didn't. They say that results breed confidence, and against West Brom tomorrow I have high hopes that if Smertin and Thomas start in place of Hughes and Kishishev, then we could start to see some of the flowing football from last August begin to resurface.
We look a real danger when we play with an orthodox winger who likes to run with the ball.

Our opponents arrive at the Valley in chequered form. A 10 man 1-0 win at high flying Wigan was followed up by a loss to Reading in the FA cup, and then a shocking 1-0 reverse at home to Sunderland.

New signing Jan Kozak has been ruled out, Kanu and Kamara are still representing their countries in the African Cup of Nations, while Zoltan Gera (who has looked like the playmaker in previous meetings) is seeing a specialist for a niggling injury, so we wont have to contend with him either.

Looks like it could be a good time to be meeting The Baggies, and a good time to right the wrongs of last seasons mystifying capitulation to what was even then, a below average premiership outfit.

Match report will most likely not be up until Wednesday evening, so apologies in advance for that.

Cynic Athletic's Prediction - 2-0 Win (Bartlett, Ambrose)