Our women's team travel down to Southampton on Sunday (2pm kick off) for their final group game in the WSL League Cup.
Unfortunately, despite their excellent away win last week at WSL Brighton, the women will not be able to qualify for the quarter finals as West Ham have an unassailable lead and only one side goes through.
Journalist Suzanne Wrack considers the problems facing the competition, including whether it should be scrapped altogether:
"What is clear is that, at the very least, the League Cup needs a boost and has done so for some time. The new title sponsorship deal with Subway has helped in this regard, with their giveaways proving popular among fans. But that is simply not enough. The group stage is undoubtedly a big issue, with the arbitrary geographical splits not really working; too many teams means that one group has five teams while the rest have four. There is also no consistent broadcasting of games (Sky Sports have the rights as part of the WSL deal)."
The fixture will at least allow Karen Hills to experiment a bit and to offer a starting place to some of her fringe players.
Next weekend is an international break so the Addicks don't return to league action until their very winnable game at Portsmouth on December 7th. The next home game is December 21st v Forest.
Photo by Danni Fairbairn