Charlton Athletic midfielder Johnnie Jackson writes for the KM Group
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Seven days after beating the blue and white half of Sheffield,
the men wearing red and white come to The Valley on Saturday.
Last weekend, we inflicted Sheffield Wednesday’s first home
league defeat of the season and I’m sure Sheffield United will be
looking to do exactly the same against us this weekend.
The 1-0 victory against the Owls was a good marker and a
statement from us. It was a big win because we went to one of our
promotion rivals and beat them on their own patch.
That said, there are still 21 matches to go this season, so
nothing’s been achieved yet.
I saw an interesting comparison made this week between this
season’s table and last season’s. After Charlton had played 25
games last term, eventual runaway champions Brighton & Hove
Albion were leading with 50 points from their 26 matches.
This season, that total would only place them in joint third,
outside the automatic promotion slots, so it’s clear that all of
the clubs at the top are doing well and we still need to keep
racking up the points.
Although we won against Wednesday on Saturday, I do think
they’ll be up there come the end of the season. They are a good,
physical side and will win the majority of their games at
Hillsborough.
It’s a big stadium, and they have a hostile crowd but it brought
out the best in everyone, including Michael Morrison, who, as a
former Wednesday player, took some stick from their supporters and
even their bench, by all accounts.
That’s just heat of the moment stuff, though, because both sides
know the importance of gaining victory.
I got a lot of the headlines after scoring the winner and I was
pleased with my
free-kick – as anyone who saw my celebration will know! But it
was a team performance. We had Rhoys Wiggins to thank at the end
for his fantastic clearance off the line, the defence in general
did brilliantly to deal with their bombardment.
It’s academy day this weekend when the club raises awareness of
the importance of its youth set-up and having been at the training
ground, I know the quality of some of the lads who are coming
through the ranks.
At last season’s academy day, we beat a club from Sheffield 1-0.
Let’s hope the same is true on Saturday!
Wednesday, January 18 2012
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