Charlton return to the Lions' Den to cross swords on Saturday hoping to end 30 years of hurt.
Our trip to South Bermondsey for a Championship fixture barely needs selling and, for all our divisions, we can agree on one thing. This is the South London Derby. It is a shorter journey between our two grounds than between Palace and Brighton and that's why it's painful to think we haven't beaten them in so long. In our dreams this week we've probably all been singing about an end to "thirty years of hurt." Once again, in the case of club over country, we hope it's the lions that are left hurting for the first time in three decades.
Trips to face Millwall are never comfortable and rarely forgiving. They have been known to cause temporary civil wars within families, and they are always shaped as much by history as by current form. This one comes at a moment when the hosts occupy a somewhat more exalted position in the table than Charlton, which only sharpens the sense of difficulty.
Our derby rivals are in the play-off places and look increasingly at home there. While the automatic promotion spots are likely to be fought over by Coventry City, Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town, it would take a brave gambler to bet against Millwall extending their play-off stay into May if their current form continues. Their win at Watford last weekend and their narrow defeat at Coventry on Tuesday confirm their pedigree.
That win over Watford was timely for them and, from a Charlton perspective, slightly worrying. Millwall imposed themselves physically, using similar tactics that have troubled us recently, of coming in via the flanks and pushing through the centre, overpowering our back line, as Southampton did for example and Sheffield United threatened to, before imploding. They have shifted away from the 442 they played earlier in the season to more of a 4321, a formation switch we saw during the draw at The Valley. The Lions don’t like possession and Saturday’s game is likely to feature few slick passing moves. Millwall are the top ranked team in the division for accurate crosses, Thomas Kaminski’s penchant for staying on his line in such scenarios is going to be tested.
That hard physical edge runs through the spine of the Millwall team. Captain Jake Cooper remains an imposing figure at the back, a player Charlton know all too well from previous meetings. Out wide, ex-Addick Alfie Doughty brings drive and aggression, while further forward there is a growing list of threats. One of those is Femi Azeez, whose rise from non-league football to the edge of the Premier League continues to gather pace after scoring against Watford last weekend. From the bench, Josh Coburn returned from injury to find the net too, underlining Millwall’s current depth. They also possess worrying creativity through Thierno Ballo, on loan from Wolfsberger AC, a player capable of finding space where none seems to exist. Creativity, you say? Isn't this Millwall? They should have brawn not brains and definitely not brains and brawn together!
Seriously though, they have recovered well from a difficult spell before Christmas and look organised, confident and comfortable with expectation. Charlton, by contrast, arrive still fighting for points that matter deeply at this stage of the season. History, of course, looms heavily. We have not beaten these blues since March 1996. Nearly thirty years of frustration, late goals conceded and momentum swings that never quite fall our way. Our last meeting offered another painful example. Sonny Carey’s first half strike had Charlton on course for a rare and sweet victory (at last) before Kayne Ramsay’s dismissal changed the game and Millwall’s equaliser felt inevitable rather than surprising.
Yet even that disappointment carried a lesson as immediately afterwards we responded by beating Sheffield United away and we did the very same last weekend in the return fixture. Few would have predicted that outcome after the opening thirty five or forty minutes of being on the back foot, yet the Addicks found a way thanks largely to Sheffield's aggression backfiring spectacularly. Maybe against nine men we should have scored more, but at this stage of the season, points matter as much as performance, and sometimes even more.
Though we still badly need points, it could be argued that much of the pressure rests with Millwall. They are the form side. They are expected to win. That imbalance can be strangely liberating for Charlton. The task is to meet the intensity without being dragged into chaos; to be physical without being reckless as happened to Sheffield United, and to remember that reputations do not decide football matches.
The lion’s den awaits again. The history is heavy, the challenge is real, but Charlton travel to the home of our nearest rivals knowing that survival in this league is built on moments that few see coming. To be or not to be the day we break the hoodoo- that is the question!