Snoop Dogg's noise to get drowned out by the Valley roar?

After Red, White and Black Day against Sheffield Wednesday a fortnight ago, The Valley welcomes another global-flavoured fixture in the visit of Swansea City. Charlton sit sixth and in the play-off zone with Swansea just three points behind in thirteenth. With this being game thirteen of the season, it’s the moment when Nathan Jones’s idea of the twelve game yardstick comes into focus – the stage where you really judge how the campaign is shaping up, as he once said in an interview.

So far so good on the twelve game front; it's a case of our fan base feeling love in the first degree for our gaffer who shares his name with a Bananarama song and hopefully there's more, more, more to come in game thirteen. As a proud Welshman, this one has extra resonance for the boss facing a club from his homeland.

Swansea arrive with one of the most international squads in the division. Players from England, Wales, Scotland (including the interestingly named Bobby Wales), New Zealand, Sweden, Ivory Coast, Slovenia, South Korea, Australia, Portugal, Chile, Angola, Brazil – and both sides of the Irish border. Amongst these are Ethan Galbraith, who faced us in the League One play-off final for Leyton Orient and the former Glasgow Celtic striker Adam Idah, who reportedly cost Swansea £7m. Nevertheless, despite the advantage of having played seven of their twelve games at home, they have made a distinctly average start to the season with four wins, four draws and four defeats.

The manager Alan Sheehan - another Irishman - is well known to Nathan Jones for whom he played in Luton's League Two promotion side in 2018. Four years later he was assistant coach to Nathan at Luton and then followed him to Southampton where both were unceremoniously sacked after fourteen games. Also he was part of the Swindon side that knocked Charlton out of the 2010 play-offs (remember Nicky Bailey’s sky-high penalty miss that was recently found floating around the high notes of another Bananarama song - Venus.).

Sheehan appears to be attempting to play in the manner of the successful Swansea teams of a decade or so ago. The Swans are fifth in the league for average possession with 53%. In a footballing climate where teams focus more on their work out of possession, that previously marginal advantage makes a difference. By means of comparison, Charlton's average is 42.5% which ranks only above Derby County. It is no surprise that Swansea have played nearly double the amount of short and medium passes than The Addicks. However, those passes haven’t built to much and the south Wales side do not create a vast amount of chances. Former Orient man Galbraith will look to carry the ball forward and into dangerous areas but Charlton showed last season that he is possible to nullify.

Off the pitch, the one-time godfather of American rap and now reformed character, Snoop Dogg is part of Swansea’s ownership group – adding a quirky beat to their global rhythm since July this year.

Snoop Dogg is a name that's been around a long time in rap music and so too has this fixture in the League pyramid. We're now into our second century of facing Swansea, having first played them in 1922. After more than a hundred years of meetings, we have 16 wins, Swansea 17 and 11 draws. The Swans have had the edge in recent years, but now, on the basis of recent form, Charlton will be aiming to swing the record back. Added to that, our Welsh visitors might be feeling the effects of their midweek League Cup meeting with Manchester City in which they took the lead and were level until the 77th minute but eventually succumbed 1-3.

They may have thought that Man City were tough opposition. Just wait until they find out what they are up against on Saturday.