Charlton, without a win in 14 matches, welcome QPR to The Valley on Boxing Day. Rangers have a history of losing this sort of fixture and the home team desperately needs a win.

Charlton Athletic (23rd) v Queens Park Rangers (9th)
Coca Cola Championship
Friday December 26, Kick Off 1pm
The Valley, London
Well I don’t know about you but it is only Christmas Eve and I am already wishing it was all over. Money being lashed out here there and everywhere, house filling up with people, buying presents and writing cards for people you have only ever met twice in your life – bah bloody humbug I say. Let’s get the turkey wolfed down and get the hell out of here to some football I say.

Sadly there is another day of pleasantries and Christmas television still to come (Pirates of the Caribbean again anybody?) before we can hit the road on Boxing Day but on paper this should be a game worth waiting for if you are a QPR fan, and one you may wish to stay inside with Noel Edmonds for if you follow Charlton. The Addicks, without a win in 14 matches, could be bottom by close of play if that run continues against Rangers who for their part could be in the top six going into the Watford game if they win here.

Unfortunately, like the BBC and ITV’s offerings to us this Yule, many of you will have seen this all before – QPR, playing well, visit an opponent without a win in nearly three months, favourites to win, fully fit squad etc etc etc etc. We all know what comes next. QPR will have to be poor, really poor, to lose this game. Derby County were an embarrassment to themselves and everybody else in the last match here but still salvaged a draw. I certainly would not put it past us though, it never ceases to amaze me just how far our performance level can drop for games like this.

With Watford at home to come two days later this weekend represents a great chance for six points and a big push up the table. I would only back a handful of teams in the league to make a mess of this – sadly we follow one of them. Still, merry bloody Christmas and here’s hoping for the best.

Five minutes on Charlton
When we played Charlton a month ago I described them as being “in trouble”. I am not sure quite where to go next because it is hard to describe their updated predicament while using language suitable for this website. I am reminded of the scene on The Simpsons where Ned Flanders asks Marge’s advice about what to do with a gang of rowdy teenagers outside his shop, the next time we see him he is being chased through the desert by three youths on motorcycles. It was bad at the end of November, but this is a whole new world of bad now.

As discussed last time Charlton’s problems really began when Alan Curbishley moved aside after more than a decade in charge of the club. The job Curbishley did in this corner of south London, initially with Steve Gritt as a joint manager, is well documented. Charlton went from a skint club without a ground to a settled Premiership side playing in the newly revamped, almost 30,000 capacity, Valley. Charlton regularly finished in the top half of the league, only denied European football by a propensity to stick the cue on the wrack in mid-March and lose their last five or six games of the season.

Some Charlton fans with short memories would besiege football phone ins at that point pointing to a lack of progress and using the deluded football fan’s favourite phrase “he’s taken us as far as he can” without ever realising that this was as good as it will ever get whether they have Jose Mourinho or Bryan Robson in charge. Charlton are never, ever, ever, ever going to be anything better than a middling Premiership team capable of occasional cup runs or pushes for the lower European spots. Many of their fans realised that and seemed quite happy, but a vocal minority did not. To suggest anything else was ludicrous and to apply pressure to a manager in the quest for something better was criminal. Without Curbishley Charlton have gone into a free fall they are yet to pull out of.

He was replaced by Iain Dowie who infamously resigned from his job at Crystal Palace to move nearer to his family in the north – about five miles north as it turned out as he pitched up at Charlton a week later. That would cost him £1m in court later on, but it did far more damage to Charlton who gave Dowie more than £10m to spend on players, more than Curbishley had ever been afforded in one sitting, and then watched as he frittered it away on the likes of Simon Walton, Amdy Faye and Djimi Traore. Dowie was sacked after 15 matches, sounds familiar, and then instead of appointing a proper manager to get them out of trouble Charlton allowed Les Reed to piss valuable time up the wall which then in turn left Alan Pardew with insufficient time to save them when he eventually got the call. I have no time at all for Pardew, but they would have stood a better chance had he replaced Dowie straight away instead of Reed.

As usual last season the bookies tipped all three relegated sides for an immediate return but Charlton look more and more like the QPR team that was relegated in 1996 with each passing day and just like Rangers they failed to even make the play offs at the first attempt despite spending decent money on the likes of Luke Varney and Izale McLeod in the quest for an immediate return. QPR beat the Addicks twice last season without conceding a goal and that summed it up really. Pardew failed to get the best out of Varney, McLeod, Iwelumo or any of his summer signings really and then repeated the trick by bringing in big name loans like Leroy Lita and our own Lee Cook with little return for his investment in them either. It certainly didn’t help that while Pardew was thrashing about with six or seven different new signings up front to no avail Kevin Lisbie, a man who had spent a decade in their reserve side and been released on a free transfer after relegation, was scoring for fun at Colchester United. Charlton were, by the end of last season, a very poor team.

Personally I would have sacked Pardew in the summer. He hadn’t saved them in his first season and he hadn’t taken them back in his second – that’s two key targets he missed. There were no signs in the summer, with budgets being tightened and players like Mark Hudson being brought in, that he was going to do anything this year other than lead them into a potentially unsuccessful relegation battle. They kept him on and that is exactly what he did. To make matters worse when they did eventually get rid of him they replaced him on an interim basis with Phil Parkinson who was terrific at Colchester but absolutely abysmal at Hull City in this division and is yet to win a game. Charlton are without a win in 14 matches now and far from learn from their mistake with Les Reed they appear to be making the same one all over again – allowing a promotion from within who simply is not up to the job to waste time and games. As each match passes without a win the task for whoever does get this job permanently, and it surely to goodness won’t be Parkinson, gets more and more difficult.

Crowds are down, money is tight, they haven’t won in 14 matches, they are second bottom of the table – Merry Christmas Charlton fans. That does not mean they won’t beat QPR of course, Rangers have a frustrating habit of being very charitable in these situations, but Paulo Sousa’s men will have to be a long, long way below par to allow it to happen this time. I watched Charlton against Derby last week and I was stunned at the poor quality not only of their team but also of the match in general. It was one of the worst games I have seen at this level and Charlton even contrived to throw that away with the last kick against an equally bad Derby side clearly not playing for their manager.

This is a game here for the taking and if it was anybody other than QPR I would be backing the away side to do just that.

Men to watch
Northern the Elder often jokes when a QPR debutant plays well that we will soon drag him down to our level and watching Hameur Bouazza against Derby last week it seems the same applies to Charlton. Bouazza, who moved to Fulham from Watford 18 months ago as part of the Lawrie Sanchez revolution, has always looked a threat from wide on the left and was Charlton’s best player in the Loftus Road game a month ago. However against Derby his confidence looked shot and on three occasions he was presented with a great chance to score but lazily thrashed at the ball and sent it flying over the cross bar. Still, he was far too much for Ramage to handle earlier in the season so that could be a weak link for Charlton to exploit on Friday.

Up front Charlton have a little and large partnership with former Burnley target man Andy Gray playing alongside Sunderland loanee Martin Waghorn, although he can be described as little in height terms only boasting, as he does, what could kindly be described as a barrel chest. Gray has often scored goals in this league for Sunderland, Sheff Utd and Burnley but is in poor touch at the moment with just one goal in his last seven appearances. Waghorn scored his first goal for the club against Derby, a heavily deflected effort, but now has Deon Burton on loan from Sheffield Wednesday breathing down his neck for a starting role in the team. Former Portsmouth and West Ham forward Svetoslav Todorov also waits in the wings whenever he isn’t busy rupturing his knee ligaments.

Looking further back through the side it is easy to see why they are struggling. Lloyd Sam has plenty of pace and tricks on the opposite flank to Bouazza but in between the wingers they have Jose Semedo who is a bog standard holding player and Nicky Bailey who they signed from Southend in the summer. Bailey, once of Barnet, has shown a taste for spectacular long range shots with three goals this season, including a blinder against Wolves, but really as central midfield partnerships go it is not the best. Keith Gillespie on loan from Sheff Utd has been made to wait for his chance from the bench.

The same can be said of the back four where Martin Cranie continues to look a couple of yards short of pace and a couple of pounds over weight at right back. Cranie was a wonderful centre half when on loan at QPR and when you consider that they only currently have the ageing Linvoy Primus and the terminally slow Mark Hudson, at fault for the Norwich winner last week, there at the moment it’s hard to understand why Cranie is stuck out wide on the right. Grant Basey, a Charlton fan and product of the youth team, is the first choice left back and was at fault for Derby’s equaliser last time out at The Valley. Kelly Youga impressed in this league with Scunthorpe last season but was very poor in the corresponding fixture at Loftus Road.

Another player that has always struggled with his weight, seems to be a theme developing here, is Nicky Weaver the goalkeeper but he has been dropped recently in favour of youth team keeper Rob Elliott who has played nearly 40 games on loan at Accrington and Notts County before making his Charlton debut against Derby.

A pretty uninspiring line up overall.

Previous Meetings
We are starting to get into the return fixtures now, this game against Charlton coming hot on the heals of the match at Loftus Road which QPR won 2-1. It certainly was not a particularly good performance from Rangers in Paulo Sousa’s first match but following on from the 3-0 defeat at Watford, the return game with the Hornets is just days away as well, this was a welcome relief. Dexter Blackstock gave QPR a first half lead with a neat finish but Charlton swiftly drew level with a nicely worked goal of their own from Racon. That looked to the end of it as the second half threatened to peter out but, really from nothing, Rangers won the game when a super cross from Ephraim found Blackstock at the back post and he planted a quite magnificent header beyond Nicky Weaver for the winner.

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Stewart 7, Gorkss 7, Delaney 5, Ephraim 6, Tommasi 5 (Mahon 62, 6) Leigertwood 6, Parejo 6 (Ledesma 73, 6), Di Carmine 5 (Agyemang 46, 7), Blackstock 7
Subs Not Used: Cole, Oastler
Booked: Leigertwood (foul), Delaney (foul), Ephraim (foul)
Goals: Blackstock 17 (assisted Tommasi), 80 (assisted Ephraim)

Charlton: Weaver 5, Cranie 5 (Sam 82, -), Primus 6, Hudson 6, Youga 5, Gillespie 6, Racon 7, Semedo 6, Bouazza 7, Waghorn 5 (Varney 62, 5), Gray 5
Subs Not Used: Elliot, Holland, Fortune
Booked: Hudson (foul)
Goals: Racon 30 (assisted Bouazza)

Match Report

Our last visit here was more than a year ago and resulted in a surprise but deserved win for Rangers in front of the Sky cameras. With Mick Harford in caretaker charge few fancied QPR to get a result against one of the promotion favourites fresh from the Premiership but with Rowan Vine in inspired form Rangers won, won well and could have won by more. Vine was fouled by Fortune for a second half penalty that Rowlands cracked against the post but when another chance came along the visitors made no mistake – Weaver fumbled Ephraim’s cross under pressure from/while being fouled by Nygaard and Adam Bolder bobbled the ball in from 15 yards to seal the win.

Charlton: Weaver 6; Mills 6, Basey 7, Sodje 7, Fortune 6; Sam 7 (Racon 85, -), Semedo 6 (J Thomas 46, 5), Zheng 7, Reid 7; Varney 6, Iwelumo 6 (McLeod 69, 5)
Subs not used: Randolph, Bougherra
Booked: Sam 81 (foul), Reid 87 (dissent)

QPR: Camp 7; Mancienne 7, Barker 7, Stewart 8, Cranie 8, Rowlands 7, Bolder 7, Leigertwood 8, Ephraim 7, Nygaard 8, Vine 8
Subs not used: Cole, Bignot, Ainsworth, Sahar, Moore
Goals: Bolder 72 (assisted Nygaard)

Match Report

Head to Head:
QPR wins – 20
Draws – 20
Charlton wins – 22

Previous QPR v Charlton scores and scorers:
2008/09 QPR 2 Charlton 1 (Blackstock 2)
2007/08 QPR 1 Charlton 0 (Blackstock)
2007/08 Charlton 0 QPR 1 (Bolder)
1999/00 Charlton 2 QPR 1 (Taylor)
1999/00 Charlton 1 QPR 0 (FA Cup)
1999/00 QPR 0 Charlton 0
1998/99 Charlton 1 QPR 0
1998/99 QPR 0 Charlton 2
1997/98 Charlton 1 QPR 1 (Peacock pen)
1997/98 QPR 2 Charlton 4 (Sheron)
1996/97 Charlton 2 QPR 1 (Dichio)
1996/97 QPR 1 Charlton 2 (Sinclair)

Team News
QPR are obviously still without Rowan Vine and Akos Buzsaky but they should have Matt Connolly back and available after missing a month of action with a back complaint – he is now back in full training. That would leave Paulo Sousa with a fully fit squad to choose from apart from Buzsaky and Vine, Blackstock and Hall will be pushing for starts after impressive cameos from the bench against Preston.

Charlton team news to follow.
Injury List

Referee
For the third time in his career Paul Taylor from Hertfordshire takes charge of a game between QPR and Charlton on Friday. Rangers are yet to beat the Addicks with him in charge having lost 4-2 and drawn 0-0 in the previous games, and they have less than fond memories of his last fixture with us when Martin Rowlands was sent off on the final day of last season against West Brom.
Details

Elsewhere
There are some key games at both ends of the table this Christmas as the Championship turns and heads for home. Reading against Cardiff with Andy Hall in charge has the potential for fireworks, as does Wolves v Sheff Utd as the chasing pack looks to close the gap on the top three. Birmingham face a potentially tricky trip to Ipswich but with Jim Magilton under increasing pressure and the Tractor Boys nothing to write home about this season I would expect them to go there and win. Down at the bottom there is a massive six pointer between Nottingham Forest and Doncaster Rovers at the City Ground – the loser of that can probably start planning for life back in League One.
Tony’s Championship Preview

Form
QPR’s home form is better than Birmingham’s, their away results are worse than Nottingham Forest’s. With only one win, at Norwich, and just three goals on the road this year Rangers look to be ideal opponents for a struggling team like Charlton. There have been improvements recently though – a run of eight away matches without a goal came to an end at Plymouth when Heidar Helguson scored in a 1-1 draw and that came on the back of a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace. Rangers were unlucky to lose at Sheff Wed in between those games and are certainly looking more likely to win a road game now Paulo Sousa has had a chance to settle in and assert himself. Rangers have won all three matches against Charlton since the Addicks were relegated from the Premiership and have only conceded one goal in that time. That run includes a 1-0 win here last year when Adam Bolder scored and Martin Rowlands missed a penalty.

Charlton’s form has been well documented. They have not won a game of any kind since the first Saturday in October when they beat Ipswich 2-1 at the Valley. Since then they have lost to Cardiff, Bristol City, Barnsley, Birmingham, Sheff Utd, QPR, Blackpool, Coventry and Norwich in a terrible run of 14 winless games. They should really have brought that to an end in their last home game when a dire match with Derby went into four minutes of injury time with Charlton leading 2-1 only for Derby to capitalise on a mistake at the back from a long throw to equalise with the last kick of the match. They may have come close to winning that game but it was clear to see why Charlton are struggling and QPR should fancy their chances – Charlton have failed to win any of their last seven home games and have only won three times at the Valley all season. Coventry, Southampton, Barnsley, Bristol City, Sheff Wed and Yeovil have all won or drawn at The Valley this season and that is a pretty sorry indictment of the Addicks home form. They have conceded 23 goals on their own patch this season, the worst record in the league, however they have scored 17 times which is bettered by only Watford and Norwich in the bottom half of the league.
Form Guide

Prediction
If this was anybody but QPR I would be saying it is an away win no questions asked. However it is, and Rangers have a horrible habit of helping teams on a poor run rediscover their form. Hopefully the three goals against Preston will give our strikers some confidence in front of goal. Charlton cannot keep not winning games at the current rate even though they were absolutely abysmal against Derby last week and I just have a feeling this will be a typical QPR away game – start well, take the lead, sit back, concede.
Charlton 1 QPR 1

Photo: Action Images

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