Saturday’s result was much better than it looked. Gillingham may be languishing in the lower reaches of the Division, but they do have an excellent home record, with seven wins and (now) five draws. There were worrying aspects, however, as the midfield was over run again and the defence had to be at its very best in order to achieve a shut out. It’s likely that they will have to show similar resilience tomorrow night, when third placed Charlton Athletic are the visitors to the Banks’s.

It seems strange to the younger fans, used to them being in the Premiership, but Charlton have been frequent visitors to the Saddlers over the years. They had been one of the country’s top team for many years, before being relegated from the top flight in 1957 and they then spent time between the second and third flights until the appointment of Alan Curbishley and their eventual promotion to the Premiership in 1998. During that time, they almost went out of business and spent some time wandering around in ground shares having lost the Valley.

It was also during that period that the famous “winner takes all” game was played between the two sides which saw the Saddlers relegated from the second tier. If you don’t know the story, it’s worth reading here:

http://www.birminghammail.net/birmingham-sport/walsall-fc/2010/01/30/walsall-s-game-with-charlton-brings-back-memories-of-the-cruellest-of-relegation-campaigns-97319-25717964/

It will be interesting to see Hutching’s team selections following the game on Saturday. Even if Hughes is fit, should we break up the excellent Smith/MacDonald partnership? Should Jones still be missing, did Nicholls do enough to finally get a start ahead of the (so far this season as a whole) disappointing Till? Did the Taundry/Mattis partnership show better balance than his favoured Bradley/Mattis one?

As for Charlton, they’ve had a couple of disappointments at home recently, losing their unbeaten record at the Valley to Orient and only drawing against Tranmere (both teams towards the bottom of the Division). That means manager Phil Parkinson will be looking for a good result tomorrow, as they now have three away games on the bounce and the gap between them and the top is growing.

Dangermen?

Leading scorer is former Walsall loanee Deon Burton (12), followed closely by Nicky Bailey (10). Also watch out, if he’s back, for promising young midfielder Jonjo Shelvey, as the 17 year old has 4 goals this season, as has the tricky Lloyd Sam.

Predictions?

Charlton are in third place, five points behind Leeds. It’s their away record which is holding them down, as well, as they have drawn too many away from the Valley (6 wins, 5 draws, 2 defeats). I think we could get a draw from this, at least.