Posh travel to the capital on Tuesday looking for a much-improved performance compared to last Tuesday’s trip to London which saw them lose two-nil in the Carabao cup to Championship side QPR.
Fortunes in the League have been the complete opposite to that defeat with three wins out of three but they now face the side that lost in the play-off semi-final to Shrewsbury Town last season, Charlton Athletic.
The Addicks have already gained revenge over the Shrews as they provided the first contest at the Valley this season. It was a very close affair which Charlton won two-one thanks to an injury-time winner in the 91st minute. That winner was only their second shot on target all game!
The opening day of the season saw Charlton head north to face League One favourites Sunderland. The Black Cats have had a summer of change and, like Posh, need time to really settle down so it was probably a good time to play them. In front of the TV cameras, the Addicks made a dream start when new striker Lyle Taylor scored from the penalty spot after only 10 minutes. The Black Cats hit back in the second half with two goals to win the tie with the winner coming in the 96th minute!
On Saturday, the Addicks faced their second away League match with a game against current League Two Champions Accrington Stanley. Once again, the Addicks scored early in the game with Karlan Ahearne-Grant heading in a Lewis Page cross. Once again, they were unable to hold on to the lead as Stanley equalised with twelve minutes remaining to leave the Addicks sitting in 12th place in League One.
PRE-SEASON TRANSFER ACTIVITY
The Addicks have seen 9 players leave the Valley with just three of them going for an undisclosed fee with the others being released or signing for other clubs on a free transfer.
They have brought in four players so far:
- Lyle Taylor (AFC Wimbledon) – Free
- Darren Pratley (Bolton Wanderers) – Free
- Jed Steer (Aston Villa) – Loan
- Krystian Bielik (Arsenal) – Loan
FORM GUIDE
The Addicks have had a mixed bag of results so far with one win, one draw and one defeat in the League while being thumped three-nil by MK Dons in the Carabao Cup.
In the League matches, they’ve conceded the majority of the possession to the opposition apart from the Shrewsbury match where they had 50% of the possession. That is similar to Posh whereby they’ve allowed the opposition to have the majority of the possession in two out of the three League matches but in Posh’s case, they’ve won all their matches so far.
HEAD TO HEAD
There have been 21 competitive matches between the Addicks and Posh with the first one coming back in a League Cup match in October 1965.
Nearly 11,000 fans packed into London Road for the third round clash which Posh won 4-3 mainly thanks to a hat-trick from John Byrne. Peter Deakin was the other Posh goalscorer. That was one of six League Cup matches played between the two clubs which saw Posh win two of them while drawing one of the other matches.
In the League, there have been 14 clashes with the first one coming in 1974/75 season. The Addicks won three-nil at the Valley while drawing one-all in the corresponding fixture that season.
Of those fourteen matches, Posh have won four, drawn four with the Addicks winning the other six matches.
The last time the two sides met was at the ABAX Stadium in March which was also the first match under the guidance of Steve Evans. Posh ran out comfortable 4-1 winners which lifted leapfrogged Posh over Charlton to seventh place and just one point away from the play-offs and with a game in hand. It was the Addicks who had the last laugh though as they reached the play-offs while Posh finished down in 9th place.
Left-back Andrew Hughes [pictured above] opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before Marcus Maddison doubled the advantage from the penalty spot. Josh Magennis had already missed a penalty by this time but they did reduce the arrears when Michael Zyro pulled a goal back. However, it was the scoring machine, Jack Marriott, who went on to seal the victory with two goals in the final ten minutes.
LAST TIME OUT AT THE VALLEY
Posh cruised through this match scoring in both halves against a poor Charlton side. Gwion Edwards had given Posh an eleventh-minute lead before Jack Marriott gave them a comfortable looking two-nil lead on the hour mark.
With many Addicks fans leaving the stadium, Posh switched off in added time but it wasn’t helped by a poor decision by referee John Brooks who awarded a penalty which was converted by Ricky Holmes. That goal sparked the home side into life and they somehow got a draw out of this match when Ahearne-Grant hit the equaliser deep, deep into added time!
Even if Posh had kept hold of the three points instead of sharing them, it wouldn’t have made any difference come the end of the season but it would be good to gain revenge over the Addicks at the Valley for that result.
PREDICTION
We’re happy to say that our predictions so far this season have been completely wrong so what do we do for the match with the Addicks?
Once again we feel this will be a very tough match and we need to make sure we don’t start suffering during midweeks games which have often been the case over the last few seasons. It didn’t start well last Tuesday and with Evans suggesting he could freshen up the starting line-up, would that disrupt the team, just as it did against QPR?
Posh have done very well so far this season in the League so if we can come back home on Tuesday evening with at least a point, then that will be a good result.
Our prediction for this match is 1-1.
