Midweek, and while the Big Boys enjoy a bit of continental fun, the Addicks are more concerned with other important things and can only see one Big Game on offer and that's at the Hawthorns, on Saturday.
And for some reason, I cannot help but be reminded of a game 9 years ago at Wembley when a certain Kevin Phillips was a nuisance all afternoon and claimed his 35th goal of the season by scoring Sunderlands first equaliser before being strangely replaced by Dichio with the score at 2-1 to the Addicks.
Well, its reported on the beeb that after getting a knee injury against Sheff. Wed 5 weeks ago Phillips is due to return against us on Saturday. "We'll decide at the end of the week but if Kevin is feeling strong, then I don't see why he won't play a part," Tony Mowbray told the club's website. Sounds a bit more hopeful that true as Mowbray tries to put the shivers up Pards. Phillips, who's already scored 10 this season, is now 34, and may need a little longer before returning to the starting eleven.
Meanwhile, his strike partner the 9 goal 'big, quick, powerful' Ismael Miller has also been out injured. Miller is, unlike Phillips, a youngster of 20, and is on a season long loan from Man. City. There's more news on the West Brom site about the injuries but with his inclusion in training not starting till the end of the week it seems that we needn't worry about facing him on Saturday. Their formation last weekend was a strange 4-4-1-1 with their very own roman, the Czech Roman Bednar leading the line.
As for the Addicks the key to the team that Pardew puts out is the enigmatic Jerry Thomas. He's been missing for three games now after suffering a dead leg against Sheff.U and with Lloyd Sam missing through his suspension, Thomas is badly needed to keep the shape of the team that did so well, sublime in fact, against Ipswich.
The Addicks defence for the weekends game is also dependent on injuries. Is Chrissie Powell's head injury going to keep him out? Or will Pards bring back Semedo to fill in at left-back? Sammy Sodje is definitely in the team after getting a place in the Fizzy team-of-the-week and it'll be a return for Magic Bougherra after losing his place to Sodje for the QPR game back in October. Exactly why Sodje should be in the team-of-the-week with no sign of two-goal machine Darren Ambrose perhaps shows the relevance of the thing.
In midfield will be ZiZi and Andy Reid, both currently fighting it out in the actim fizzy index for bragging rights as to the best Addicks player. Interesting, and perhaps a pointer to best team in the fizzies - but personally I wouldn't believe it - is that the Addicks only have 5 players in the top 100 whereas our next opponents have 6 in the top 30, and a total of 11, a full team in fact, in the top 100. Game over, then. But then Ipswich have 8 in the list and we know what happened to them.
Which only goes to show that, despite all the numbers banded about - and I'm a bigger culprit that most - , statistics don't really matter in football, and reminds us that, as Mark Twain told us, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
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