As the Fleet leave the North and set sail for Charlton, it must feel like they're arriving on a Game of Thrones film set. Of late, Charlton owners have developed a habit of getting rid of the main characters very quickly. With Dean Holden despatched as we're barely into the first half of a quarter of the season, Jason Pearce is the new king of SE7.

A week ago, that's not how the script was supposed to be written. In this article, we expected to be calling for the team to start picking up points, not hoping for fans to give the new management and players a much-needed pick up. But we are where we are and badly need a win on Saturday. There are a lot of names in the hat for the longer-term managerial position (hesitate to use the word permanent) but, if we get too far adrift of the promotion pack, even at this stage, it won't matter who's in charge. Anything less than a win on Saturday would probably leave us in the bottom four.

But it has to be said, we really haven't been a bottom four team in the traditional sense. Nobody has played us off the park - even League One leaders Oxford last weekend.. We've just defended badly at critical points in games, ending up as the architects of our own downfall with silly errors. However, there is still time to put the foundations in place for a punt at promotion. Some of the candidates in the frame have promotions on their CV, which sets them apart from Johnnie Jackson, Ben Garner and Dean Holden, our last three managers. Recent promotions too, unlike Nigel Adkins.

With a quick appointment and a managerial bounce (if such a thing exists) the season's appearance could change quite quickly. However, we are still likely to face a recurring problem. Whoever comes in won't have had the luxury of picking the players that he has to work with until the next transfer window and probably beyond that. Most likely too, he's going to have a tough introduction to the position, although the postponement of the Wigan game does at least offer some breathing space before the tough away fixture at Stevenage.

And what if we go out and hammer Fleetwood 5-1 at the weekend, like we did last year against Plymouth Argyle ? And then if that form continues as the search for a manager drags on, could Jason Pearce's role end up lasting longer than expected? Probably not for a number of reasons. But in the circus of life at Charlton in recent times, we never quite know what to expect.

We're not even sure if ex-Addick Jayden Stockley is going to be in the Fleetwood side on Saturday. He missed their last game against Shrewsbury where they went down 1-0 at home and ended the match with nine men. But, if he is, it's a sure bet he's going to be doing his best to score, as ex-Addicks always seem keen to do when they return to The Valley. Unless Jason Pearce can tighten up things at the back pretty quickly we probably are going to see goals conceded. Hopefully though we'll score a few at the other end. A high scoring win would be nice but at this stage we'll take any kind of win.

Jason Pearce's first press conference here:

https://www.charltonafc.com/news/pearce-previews-fleetwood-clash