Blackburn Rovers vs Charlton Athletic. Sky Bet League One.
Ewood ParkAttendance10,907.
Friday 15 December 2017 12:36, UK
Corry Evans and Marcus Antonsson head Blackburn's injury concerns prior to Charlton's visit.
Both players missed Wednesday's FA Cup replay win over Crewe - Evans due to a gashed knee and Antonsson because of a minor niggle - and manager Tony Mowbray has reported other unnamed players are struggling with strains.
Mowbray is running low on midfielders as it is with Peter Whittingham (calf) injured and Elliott Bennett suspended. They have joined Harry Chapman (hamstring), Ben Gladwin (knee) and Darragh Lenihan (foot) on the sidelines.
Charlton could recall Jason Pearce for the trip after his recovery from a knee injury. Manager Karl Robinson is, however, still without Tarique Fosu, owing to a hamstring problem, and Patrick Bauer and Ahmed Kashi, who both have foot injuries.
Ben Reeves and Harry Lennon are others in contention to start after they were substitutes during last Saturday's 1-0 home defeat by Portsmouth, when the former made a brief appearance. Fosu and Kashi are making significant progress, but Saturday's fixture comes too soon.
These sides have not met in the third-tier since the 1974/75 season; they have had 46 league clashes since, 14 of which were in the Premier League.
Blackburn are currently enjoying a five-game unbeaten run against the Addicks in the league (W4 D1), scoring 12 goals in that time.
Rovers are on a run of five consecutive league victories and are unbeaten in their last nine League One games (W6 D3) - the last time Blackburn won six league games on the bounce came back in November 2000 in the second tier of English football.
Charlton have won just one of their last 17 away league matches during the month of December (D7 L9), a 1-0 triumph over MK Dons on Boxing Day last season.
Blackburn Rovers have scored 37 goals in League One this season - only table toppers Wigan have netted more (38).
Five wins on the spin now for Blackburn and they really have closed the gap on the top two of Wigan and Shrewsbury.
Charlton, however, have just dropped off a little of late and they could really do with a positive result here to get themselves back up and running. Despite that, I can't see them stopping Rovers here.
David Prutton predicts: 1-0 (11/2 with Sky Bet)