Charlton return to The Valley on Friday night for a fixture that begins one minute later than usual, with kick off scheduled for 8.01pm.

Across the EFL this weekend, matches will start a minute late as part of the Every Minute Matters campaign, supporting the British Heart Foundation and encouraging supporters to learn CPR. It is a simple, respectful gesture, but one with real meaning, reminding everyone inside football grounds that those minutes can save lives.

There is a particular Charlton connection to the campaign. One of its most prominent advocates is Tom Lockyer, who spent the 2019–20 season at The Valley before moving on to Luton Town. Lockyer’s collapse with a heart condition during the 2023 Championship play off final brought home just how quickly a football match can turn into a medical emergency. Recent tragedies in the Charlton football family and the wider football world have only reinforced that message. It is right that the game pauses briefly to acknowledge it, before attention turns to the football itself.

Charlton arrive at this one in far better spirits. Last weekend’s 2–0 win away at Leicester City felt significant and the January additions to the squad were impressive.  Leicester attempted a physical approach similar to the one that overwhelmed us at Millwall but this time it backfired badly. Even with eleven against eleven, the Addicks looked the more driven side, playing with intensity from the first whistle and carrying that energy through the game.  That result has lifted us to 35 points. The job is far from done, but the path is clearer. Reaching the 40 point mark remains the immediate aim, with an eye on pushing beyond that towards 50 if momentum can be sustained. There are still plenty of matches left, and the relegation pack remains tightly bunched, but Charlton now look like a side that others may think twice about trying to bully.

Friday’s opponents, Queens Park Rangers, come to The Valley in good form themselves. They moved closer to safety last weekend with an impressive 2–1 win over leaders Coventry City. That result underlined the progress they have made under their French manager Julien Stéphan whose influence has brought structure, confidence and results since their 1-7 defeat at Coventry in August. His team are edging towards the 50 point mark and will see this trip as opportunity to close the gap on the play-off contenders. They also carry clear threats. Paul Smyth has been central to their revival. The Northern Ireland international, who had a loan spell at Charlton in the 2020–21 season, has become a key figure again at Loftus Road since returning in 2023 and played a major role in the win over Coventry. Alongside him, the dynamic Gordon Strachan-like Danish midfielder Nicolas Madsen brings energy and goals from midfield, whilst another Irishman Jimmy Dunne adds steel and leadership. They can also turn to Japanese international Koki Saito who came off the bench to turn the game when we went to Loftus Rd in August and, if they suffer a goalkeeping injury, we might see 38 year old Ben Hamer between their sticks. They will very definitely be crossing the river on business not leisure, and will be looking to improve their recent away record against relegation-threatened teams. In the last two months they have lost at Norwich and West Brom and drawn at Portsmouth and Oxford.

QPR are an incredibly attacking side but they’re also fairly solid at the back. They outscore their xG by seven goals, suggesting that they don’t need to create gilt edged chances to score. Like Charlton, their gameplay largely relies on not having the ball. The R’s average 45% possession while Charlton average 43.7%. As such, counter attacking is the game plan for the west Londoners.

Richard Kone, Karamako Kader Dembele and Rumarn Burrell are their speediest players but the latter two are likely to be sidelined. In the reverse fixture, the wide areas were where QPR caused the most problems; Charlton will be hoping that Harry Clarke and Luke Chambers can blunt that threat.

For Charlton, the challenge is to build on Leicester rather than think the job's done. In a February Friday night game at The Valley under the TV lights it would be very easy to freeze - and not just up in the heights of the Alan Curbishley Stand. We have to keep going, ploughing on towards that 50 point mark which traditionally means survival. The Leicester result gives us real hope that we can.

Every minute will matter on Friday night, in more ways than one. The hope is that, after the brief pause at kick off, Charlton can make the minutes that follow count just as much.