On Saturday Blackpool FC's Seasiders will host the Addicks at Bloomfield Road, with both clubs hoping to ride the tide of the recent form that they have shown.
The Addicks head for the Fylde Coast with everything in “shipshape and Bristol fashion” after we carried on making waves in the race for the play-offs with a midweek win over Rovers. We're now up to eighth in a table that's starting to give more of a sense of how the play-off race is going to shape up. We are only a point behind sixth place Leyton Orient who we face away in a month's time on the 1st of March.
A win at Blackpool would definitely see us close in on the pack ahead, because Orient are at home to fifth placed Stockport, who are on forty seven points, but have played one game more than their opponents and ourselves. Significantly too, that pack is starting to look a bit like the second half of ‘The Grand National’ where some of the early pacesetters run out of steam and the main riders start jockeying for position. It sort of supports what Nathan Jones has been cracking the whip about all season, which is that nothing's won in September, November or indeed on windy February afternoons in Blackpool.
Statistically though, the odds are against us strutting down the famous promenade on Saturday night with three points in our beach bags. In 69 meetings, Blackpool have won 32 times, Charlton have won 19 times, and there have been 18 draws. However, in more recent times, we have managed to get the better of these encounters although last time out at The Valley, back in September, Blackpool grabbed their first away League One victory under new manager Steve Bruce.
The scorer of the winning goal that afternoon was Albie Morgan, who spent five years with the Addicks from 2018 to 2023. So far this season he's been a regular for the Seasiders and is likely to feature once again at the weekend, having been instrumental in last weekend's 3-1 victory at Exeter and Tuesday's 2-0 win at Lincoln, both of which clubs are fast falling out of the race. Those wins were actually Blackpool's first since mid-December but, having drawn four games in a row before those impressive back to back victories, they are now unbeaten in six. Their away record is exceptional with seven wins on the road plus recent draws at Birmingham and Wycombe. Amazingly, however, they have only won twice at home all season and not at all since the end of September. Such inconsistency has been a hallmark of their season and they currently sit in 13th place on 37 points, looking very much like a soon-to-be mid-table side with nothing left to play for. Yet at the same time, I doubt they're ready to put their feet up on the beach just yet.
It is a couple of southern sides who seem to be riding the crest of a wave in this division at the moment - ourselves and Leyton Orient whose form is currently exceptional. Maybe by the end of the weekend or at least in advance of our trip across the river at the start of March we'll have swapped places. However as Nathan Jones said after the midweek win, we're not getting carried away but ..... in a time of six wins in eight and just one defeat in ten games for the Addicks, we're more than hoping to continue the recent momentum and start the new month as we ended the old. Suddenly it really does look like we have learned to win games again!