Wigan Athletic vs Charlton Athletic | League One Preview

League One football is back, and Shaun Maloney's first test of the 2024/25 season is to take on Nathan Jones' Charlton Athletic. Latics haven't beaten the Addicks since February 2022.

Part One | An overview of our opponents. 🔎

Part Two | “Who to Watch” players. 👓

Part Three | What can we expect from this game? 🏟️

One hundred and twelve days have passed since Wigan Athletic signed off the 2023/24 League One season with an home victory against Bristol Rovers. It feels good to be back.

That performance at the DW capped off a brilliant campaign that saw us rise from the depths of the table, having started with a point deficit of -8, take on and succeed against some of the biggest and best teams of the campaign, and finish on a respectable 62 points - that should have been 70 if not for our starting point!

From that day, two of our starting players have departed (Josh Magennis, and Liam Morrison), along with four more players from our bench (Tom Pearce, Martial Godo, Charlie Kelman, and Ben Amos). First-team coach, Stephen Crainey, has also switched his allegiance to Bolton Wanderers ⚪️

Max Rogers has stepped up to become Assistant Manager, with Graham Barrow stepping down to assess his future options (hopefully still with Latics!).

Shaun Maloney, Gregor Rioch, and Ben Goodburn have had to lead another big summer at the club, however, I feel we are certainly heading in the right direction and am excited to see what we can achieve throughout this new campaign.

First up, we take on Charlton Athletic at the DW Brick Community Stadium (that will take some getting used to!).

Let’s kick off another season! ⚽️

Charlton Athletic are our opening-day opponents and are lining up for their 5th consecutive season in League One, after their relegation from the Championship in the 2019/20 season. It’s been a rocky time for the Addicks since then, with a 7th-placed finish in 2020/21 followed up by a 13th, a 10th, and most recently a 16th-placed finish.

The 2023/24 season was disappointing for Charlton, who realistically should have been fighting for a place in the top 10 throughout the season with the squad they had. Their striker, Alfie May, even won the Golden Boot with 23 goals ⚽️

However, their reality was very different. Charlton suffered two steep drops down the table due to poor runs, and never quite recovered to reach higher positions. The first drop occurred in August as they lost four on the bounce after an opening-day victory. Their second drop occurred from December 9th to February 27th, where they drew 8 and lost 8 and were without a win since November 28th. Michael Appleton was sacked in the middle of that run, and it wasn’t a surprise when it happened.

Last season was bleak for the Addicks overall, but there is hope under the management of Nathan Jones that they can bounce back well. Their 14-game unbeaten run, before a final-day loss to Wycombe, signalled that Jones was getting to grips with his new challenge.

Over the summer, Charlton lost their top scorer, Alfie May, to Birmingham City, but have replaced him with the prolific former Coventry City forward, Matty Godden. For context, Charlton lost a player who has scored 116 career goals in 331 games and replaced him with another who has scored 118 career goals in 342 games. I have a feeling they will be ok.

Gassan Ahadme is another attacking recruit that Jones has secured, after an impressive 11 goals in 29 games for a struggling Cambridge United side last season. Two of those goals came against Wigan Athletic in our 3-1 defeat on April 1st at the Cledara Abbey Stadium 😬

The Addicks also said goodbye to their Captain, George Dobson (CM - Wrexham), who I believe will be a big miss for them. He started 43/46 League One games last season and was a standout performer whenever I saw Charlton play. New recruit, Greg Docherty, has taken the captain’s armband for this season.

Alongside Godden and Ahadme, Jones has brought in Will Mannion (GK from Cambridge United), Josh Edwards (LB from Dunfermline), Alex Mitchell (CB from Lincoln City), Luke Berry (CM from Luton Town), and Greg Docherty (CM from Hull City). That is an incredibly tidy summer transfer window and has certainly locked Charlton in for a competitive 2024/25 campaign 🔐

Charlton Athletic Pre-Season Results

Dartford 1 - 6 Charlton

(T Campbell 14’ & 42’, N Asiimwe 23’, D Kanu 24’, T Watson 66, D Hylton 85’)

Charlton 3 - 1 Göztepe

(T Campbell 11’, D Kanu 16’, A Mitchell 65’)

Crystal Palace 1 - 1 Charlton

(C Aneke 38’)

AFC Wimbledon 2 - 0 Charlton

Charlton 2 - 0 Portsmouth

(T Campbell 9’, G Ahadme 51’)

Nathan Jones has a wealth of talented players at his disposal, and these three are at the top of my radar for this weekend’s clash…

Tyreece Campbell (Number TBC, Attacking Midfielder, Age: 20)

Last season, Campbell scored 2 goals and provided 5 assists for the Addicks. While those numbers are quite low for an attacking midfielder, they did put him second in the total goals and assists chart with 7 - just a mere 17 behind Alfie May!

Campbell’s last season contribution was against Port Vale on January 6th, so why have I chosen him as a threat? 🤔

The Academy graduate signed his professional contract in July 2021 and has taken part in the 22/23 campaign and 23/24 campaign. He featured more in the wide spaces in previous games but looks to be moving more central, is quick, tough to dispossess, and now has a variety of top-quality players around him to feed the ball through to. Campbell scored 4 goals in their preseason, along with 1 assist, and I am expecting double figures for his goals and assists tally this season.

Conor Coventry (Number TBC, Midfielder, Age: 24)

It’s not often that I highlight a holding midfielder as a ‘one to watch’ player, however, Coventry is somebody that I feel is going to cause us problems all afternoon. Not in the attacking sense so much, but more as a player we will struggle to play the ball around.

This is Coventry’s heatmap from the 2023/24 season, where he started 16 of his 17 appearances. He provided 0 goals and 0 assists, but after 5 consecutive defeats when he joined in January 2024, the West Ham Academy graduate helped Charlton to a 12-game unbeaten streak.

He is a nuisance to get past and plays the ball forward well. With George Dobson departing, Coventry will no doubt be taking on more responsibility within the Addicks midfield and has enjoyed a successful preseason overall leading into this new campaign.

Gassan Ahadme (Number TBC, Forward, Age: 23)

From November 25th to April 1st last season, Ahadme made 8 League One appearances and scored 8 goals. Injuries affected the Morrocan’s season, but when he was involved he was a threat, and his numbers speak for themselves 📊

In truth, I did not expect Ahadme to remain at Ipswich Town as they embark on their Premier League journey, but I also did not expect the forward to drop back down to League One. I thought he would be loaned out, or even make a permanent move, to a Championship side if not abroad. I feel this is a good bit of business from the Addicks.

The 23-year-old is 6 foot 3, and 6 of his 11 goals last season were scored with his head. Our defence has to win their aerial duels and mark Ahadme closely to nullify his threat. Step up, Jason Kerr and Charlie Hughes 🤝

Charlton Athletic are going to be a very different force within League One this season. Nathan Jones will get them playing in a more aggressive way defensively, with quick attacking plays that should see them easily beat last season’s tally of 64 goals due to the players operating in his system.

After a rocky opening five fixtures in 2023/24, Jones will be desperate to get the Addicks starting on the right foot and provide the spark to light the flame for their campaign.

At the DW Stadium last season, Wigan Athletic were played off the park in the first half but fought back well to make the scoreline more respectable in our 3-2 defeat. Martial Godo’s second-half entrance to the field inspired the (almost) comeback. At the Valley, the two sides were more even and shared the points with a 2-2 encounter. Charlie Kelman’s brace was enough to add a well-earned point to our tally 🤝

Both sides come into this game with strong defensive units, battling midfielders, and pacey attacking options. I expect this game to be an exciting season opener with both sides delivering big hits like two heavyweight boxers desperate to win.

Shaun Maloney needs to ensure that our back line is ready to deal with the aerial attacks, with pacey attacking outlets to carry the ball forward. Dion Rankine can be very effective on the wing in this game, and Thelo Aasgaard will have plenty of work to do in order to break down the Addicks' defence. Just like Charlton have a tall presence up top in Ahadme, Wigan have Joe Hugill who will be ready to hit the ground running in his second League One season. Balls into the box, Latics! 🎯

Unfortunately, we are not likely to see Silko Thomas, Jonny Smith, Callum McManaman, Tyrese Francois, and Luke Robinson in this game due to injury concerns. Michael Olakigbe is out due to a broken leg.

Starting XI Prediction: Tickle, Sessegnon, Hughes, Kerr ©️, Aimson, Chambers, Adeeko, M Smith, Aasgaard, Rankine, Hugill

Score Prediction: Wigan Athletic 3 - 2 Charlton Athletic

Up the Tics 🔵⚪️

🙌 Thank you for reading!

✍🏼 Charlie Keegan / Central Wigan

📲 Follow the X account! (www.x.com/CentralWigan)

☕️ Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/centralwigan