Illness hits Charlton Athletic camp ahead of Sheffield Wednesday clash – boss comments on Owls fans and squad
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The Owls are chasing a club-record 20th league match unbeaten and are hoping to hold on to top spot in the League One table.
And Holden, whose appointment to the role just before Christmas has steered Charlton towards a more pragmatic style of play and an upturn in results, watched on as his side performed below their best to lose at Wednesday’s fellow promotion-chasers Derby County last weekend.
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Hide Ad“Darren has done a great job, I have to say,” he told Charlton’s website. “He’s got a really good squad of players, some of whom I’ve worked with personally as well. They’re on a great run of form – there’s no getting away from that.
“They’ll come with an army of support, as they always do, and it’ll be a great atmosphere around The Valley. I said to the players that these are the games we want to play in League One – two of the biggest clubs coming against each other on the pitch and, as I say, it should be one hell of an atmosphere.
“We’ve got to make sure that we do the basics better than we did last week [at Derby County],” he added. “We’re a good team on our day but we need to make sure that we do it consistently throughout the 90 minutes. It’s an exciting game for us.”
Tricky young forward Miles Leaburn is touch-and-go for the match with a hip injury and speaking ahead of the match Holden admitted there were further concerns owing to a bout of illness.
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Hide Ad“There’s a possibility,” Holden said on Leaburn – son of former Addicks striker Carl. “He’s trained a little bit this week but whether he’s done enough to come back into the matchday squad… we’ll have a little chat as a staff this afternoon on that.
“There are one or two knocks and niggles and bit of illness floating about the camp.
“Once we get to the game tomorrow we’ll have an exact idea of who we’ve got, but there are one or two doubts.”