Plymouth preview

I can't have been the only Charlton fan that reviewed the Championship table to see how Plymouth had started the season, only to proclaim, "How the hell did they get there?" Nonetheless, they are firmly in 6th place on merit, and notably have scored the same number of goals away from home as we have at The Valley (nine).

The Plymouth fans must be as grateful to the fixture computer as our fans were when they travelled to Hull, although in fairness everywhere is a long way from Plymouth. As a result, I can't say I've ever been there myself although I have long been aware that there are suburbs there called Mutley and Pennycomequick, which is almost enough to persuade me to move there.

We are clearly in the midst of a slightly dodgy run of form, particularly if you include the Luton defeat, and a solid home win tonight would put us firmly back on track. Watford's consistency now means we are as close to them as we are to Leicester in 18th place, a sign of the bunching up behind us, a situation which would be considerably worsened by a failure to triumph over Plymouth.

With Chris Powell definitely out, Pards has an unwelcome selection headache. I trumpeted the claims of Grant Basey in my last post, not because I've seen him play, but because if you can't throw in a promising youngster in a situation like this one, it throws up serious questions about the whole purpose of the academy. Having said that, I suspect Pards will opt to cover over the cracks by using one of Mills, Semedo or McCarthy at left-back. With Moutaouakil itching to return to first team action, perhaps Mills would be the obvious choice.

Elsewhere, Darren Ambrose has taken some stick from some supporters, and he is certainly capable of flattering to deceive, even at this level. Given his lack of pace, we have a tendency of looking somewhat sterile through midfield (particularly with the equally pondering Reid on the left), and thus I would expect Jerome Thomas to be handed a rare start on the right.

Up front, Iwelumo is bound to keep his place, although one wonders whether Todorov ought to be handed a start next to him, with memories of their successful partnership in the second half versus Sheffield Wednesday? Thus I expect us to line up as follows:

Weaver, Moutaouakil, Mills, Bougherra, Fortune, Reid, Thomas, Semedo, Zheng, Iwelumo, Todorov. Subs: Randolph, Sodje, Racon, Varney, Ambrose.

NY Addick predicts: Charlton 2 (Todorov, Reid), Plymouth 1 (Hayles) Attn: 20,101.