Crawley Town square off against Charlton Athletic on New Year's Day requiring a win to have a chance of moving outside of the League One relegation zone.
At a time when the home side sit in 21st position in the table, Charlton are in ninth after putting together an outstanding recent run of form.
Match preview
© Imago
With eight goals having been conceded in three matches prior to the trip to Exeter City, Rob Elliot may have anticipated more issues in defence.
However, Elliot would not have expected his side to score four goals at St James Park and still fail to win, particularly in the circumstances which they did.
Crawley held a 4-1 lead as they approached the hour mark before eventually conceding a last-gasp equaliser to draw 4-4, the share of the spoils feeling very much like a defeat.
Although Crawley remain within two points of safety, this was a clear missed opportunity to move as high as 19th place with a game in hand on Northampton Town.
The positive ahead of this contest is that Crawley have played just 10 games at the Broadfield Stadium, accumulating 11 points from those fixtures.
© Imago
Earlier last week, Crawley would have felt that it was plausible that they would be playing opponents who were coming off the back of a defeat to Wycombe Wanderers.
Instead, Nathan Jones's side ended the 19-match unbeaten streak of the Chairboys as they prevailed 2-1 at The Valley on Sunday.
Charlton have now posted three successive victories and put together an unbeaten run of five matches, catapulting the Addicks into ninth position.
With playoff rivals Reading to follow this contest, Jones and his squad are aware that they have an opportunity to gatecrash the top six over the coming games.
Team News
© Imago
With Crawley 4-1 ahead at Exeter prior to any substitutions being made, the expectation is that the same starting lineup will be selected for this fixture.
Junior Quitirna came back into the team to score his fifth goal of the season and should start again having gotten 59 minutes in the tank.
Ronan Darcy appears likely to remain out of the side ahead of a potential exit in January.
Charlton may also line up with an unchanged XI on the back of their eye-catching triumph over Wycombe.
Miles Leaburn now has four goals and two assists from his last three fixtures and should continue to lead the attack.
Crawley Town possible starting lineup:
Wollacott; Mullarkey, Conroy, Barker; Ibrahim, Quitirna, Kelly, Anderson, Camara; Swan; Showunmi
Charlton Athletic possible starting lineup:
Maynard-Brewer; Mitchell, Jones, Gillesphey, Edwards; Coventry, Docherty; Small, Berry, Campbell; Leaburn
We say: Crawley Town 1-2 Charlton Athletic
With Crawley having shown signs of improvement last time out, they cannot be ruled out of this contest. Nevertheless, Charlton are on a massive high having defeated Wycombe, something which we feel will lead to a hard-earned victory being recorded here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Darren Plant
