Daunting might be a good word for this weekend's trip.
Although it might be an understatement.
Coventry have won twelve, drawn four and lost just one game this season. They have won nine of their last ten games. They are unbeaten at home (six wins, two draws) with a goal difference of 22-6. They have scored 47 goals already, including the seven they put past QPR and the fives they got against Derby away and Sheffield Wednesday. In recent weeks they have won at Stoke (0-1) and at Middlesbrough (2-4). Meanwhile, we arrive after a trio of defeats with a goal difference of 1-9.
When Frank Lampard took over a year ago Coventry were 17th - two points off the bottom three and ten away from the play-offs. They then collected 52 points from 29 games to finish fifth. They subsequently lost in the last minute of extra time in their play-off semi-final with Sunderland but it doesn't look as if the play-offs will be required this season. No club has ever established a ten point lead after sixteen games in The Championship before and Lampard has achieved this largely with the players he inherited a year ago. Ten of the fourteen players he used in his first game were used at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night.
For Charlton, recovering some defensive solidity will be the aim of the game this weekend. James Bree returning to the side against Stoke was a positive sign but two of the goals conceded were in part due to him not closing his man down. On the other side of defence, Macauley Gillesphey’s lack of pace is being exposed. Coventry will be licking their lips in anticipation of a good feed on Saturday and it will take a heroic performance for our makeshift defence to keep them out. Amari’i Bell made the bench against Stoke but won’t be ready to start. Nathan Jones might decide to employ the back four used at times against Stoke which would allow Tyreece Campbell to operate further up the pitch. Equally, he might go ultra-defensive and fill as much space as possible.
When CAST hosted a webinar with journalists back in August Daniel Taylor made the point that, if Charlton stay up by finishing 19th, they may still lose twenty games. He stressed that supporters who have become used to winning games in League One will have to accept those defeats and stay resilient and loyal. Having lost only six of our seventeen games we are ahead of the curve but the nature of the last two defeats has without doubt shaken some confidence and certainly blown away any complacency. Avoiding a seventh defeat at The Coventry Building Society Arena would be a major achievement and those of us travelling up there will be realistic about that. We don't want our goal difference to take another battering but we can't get fewer than no points and we will still probably be eight points clear of the bottom three if we lose.
The games coming up that really matter are those next month against Portsmouth, Oxford and Norwich, and Saturday's game might be an exercise in damage limitation while we recover fitness ahead of those games. There is of course always the faint hope of a smash-and-grab win.
Just remember that FA Cup tie up there in January 2000 when we came back from 0-2 to knock them out 3-2.
Photo by Rhea Spencer-Newell