Manager hopeful Valley curse will end against Clarets

12:53pm Thursday 28th February 2013

By George Jones

VALLEY boss Chris Powell is backing Charlton to turn their wretched home form around against Burnley on Saturday.

Last weekend the Addicks slumped to their seventh home defeat of the season at the hands of Nottingham Forest, but Powell is backing his side to achieve their third league double of the season with victory over the Clarets on Saturday.

The SE7 manager said: “We’ve had them watched, Damien Matthew went up on Tuesday evening.

“He used to play at Burnley so we sent him up to see one or two of his old friends and he took in the game, so we know about them.

“We know what they’ve been doing recently so again, as I have said, you can look at sides in the Championship who may not be in the best frame of mind or form, but then they can turn up and play exceptionally well.

“I know Sean Dyche and his staff, so it’s going to be a difficult game for us and one that we’re going to have to negotiate again.”

One man the Charlton defence are going to have to keep at bay is Charlie Austin.

The former Swindon striker has scored 20 of Burnley’s 47 league goals so far this season, although he has been less prolific since suffering a hamstring injury at the turn of the year.

The Addicks backline kept him at bay when they recorded a 1-0 victory at Turf Moor in November, but Powell is still more than aware of the threat he will pose.

“You are always one of them, regardless of your age you know where to instinctively go and whether it goes in cleanly or bobbles in, goal scorers and ones like Charlie Austin score all types of goals, so we are going to have to be on our guard.

“My defenders will definitely have to be on their toes, but they have played against him this year and they did ever so well.

“Leon Cort and Michael Morrison were the two who played against him up there, so if it’s those two again then they will have to be on their guard.”

In the past, certain managers have experimented in match preparation in an attempt to rectify a spot of poor form.

Some train on the pitch during the week, some switch the home and away dugouts, some take the squad to see therapists and occasionally some refurbish the dressing room.

And Powell admitted he has made some slight adjustments to his preparation this week in an attempt to turn Charlton’s poor home form around – but nothing out of the ordinary.

“I’ve a little bit to do things differently and we have still got Friday and Saturday to go,” he said.

“You just try to look for different things. Is it suitable for us to train on our pitch?

“Is it whether we go up to The Valley, don’t train but just look around at the surroundings?

“But of course everyone is, so we’re not going to hide from the fact, we’re going to face up to it and show some character.

“We all know that if it was just slightly in our favour then it would be to the benefit of the team and a benefit to our points total, but the players are fine.”

Powell added: “We have trained well we have put last week behind us and all we can do is go out there for 90 plus minutes and do our best to rectify it.

“We definitely were the better team on the day and got hurt right at the end, so we know that we can perform there and can create chances for sure.

“We have just to take as many positives as we can going into, not only Saturday, but the remaining 11 games and the remaining home games as well.”