Fresh off the back of a victory away to Nottingham Forest, Charlton host Durham at The Valley this Sunday. The fixture kicks off at the earlier time of midday to accommodate the long journey home for the visitors. Hopefully the journey is made worse by a defeat.
The Addicks saw off the second half challenge of Forest last time out and it was great that key players Ellie Mason and skipper Keira Skeels returned from injury. Lucy Fitzgerald scored a stunner from outside the box, quickly followed by a header from a Jodie Hutton corner. Katie Bradley had a rare off day but it was encouraging to see the rest of the team pick up the pieces.
Durham should be a simpler test than Forest, although they did us a favour last weekend by holding Birmingham to a draw. The north east side have won only three games this season and haven’t kept a clean sheet since October. They are also among the lowest scorers in the division with only Ipswich Town and Sheffield United having netted fewer.
With players slowly returning from injury we might get to see Charlotte Newsham playing back on her natural right side. The fullback has deputised admirably on the left of defence but her attacking thrust has been missed. With Karin Muya getting stuck in and involved on the right flank more often in recent weeks it would great to see Newsham bomb past her on the outside and create some overloads.
Striker Amelie Thestrup is in desperate need of league goals and should be relishing this weekend's fixture. Fitzgerald has now scored three in her last two appearances and will be wanting to keep finding the back of the net. Sophie Whitehouse, having won the WSL2 save of the month award for January, has already submitted her February contender when she kept out Forest's Ebba Hed in injury time last week.
As each week progresses the holy grail of promotion gets ever closer. Because of the early start on Sunday Charlton could establish an eight point lead before the rest kick off and, with the rearranged game at Ipswich being played the following Wednesday, they should be healthily placed going into March. However, Karen Hills is sure to be taking it one game at a time.