Having spent the morning in a rather depressing meeting on bluetongue (including examining close up pictures of leisions and contemplating a forecast of 3 million sheep fatalities next year) I am not sure that the prospects for the weekend cheer me up that much.
The Charlton squad is badly depleted by injuries and suspensions. Those fans who who would like Charlton to be a kind of Crewe developing youngsters are salivating at the prospect of seeing them being mauled on the pitch by Hull's charm merchants. For those of us who would like to get back into the Premiership, it's a less appealing prospect.
Just consider the situation at left back. If all five left backs were fit and not on loan, we could put out an outfield team which was fifty per cent left backs. What a formation that would be!
As it is we are likely to depend on Chris Powell tomorrow, even though his performance at The Hawthorns was not up to scratch. Of course, all the criticism has overlooked the positives: two goalline clearances and some good combinations with Jerome Thomas.
It seems that Iwelumo will be fit, if not for 90 minutes. Luke Varney is unlikely to recover from his virus in time. Given that we will miss the attacking contribution of Zheng Zhi, I think that Pards may go for a 4-4-2 with McLeod up front with Iwelumo.
Midfield is likely to be Thomas, Holland, Semedo and Sam. Mills will be at right back and in the centre will be Sam Sodje, possibly making his last home appearance for the Addicks and 'Magic' Bougherra who needs to be fitted with a global positioning system to get him in the right place.
I'm not that optimistic about the outcome so I'm going for a 1-1.
Fortunately, bluetongue is not zoonotic otherwise we would find the squad getting it. It does have the effect of softening the baa of sheep, so a very mild case for our on pitch announcer might not be a bad thing.
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