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Worth a quick watch before we get going. Wembley is painted red.
This game’s been billed a bit as a contest between two strikers. In one corner, there’s Charlton’s Matty Godden, 33, with 22 goals this season. In the other, Charlie Kelman, 10 years younger, on loan from QPR and with 27 goals this campaign.
Kelman was here as a boy to watch West Ham win the Championship playoff against Blackpool in 2012. Kudos if you can name the goalscorers that day.
This is a lovely interview with Martin Ling, Orient’s director of football.
Charlton were victors in both league encounters with Orient; two injury-time goals secured a comeback win when the Addicks were visitors in March. Both goals came from corners, with Macaulay Gillesphey and Kayne Ramsay heading in, so it’ll be worth keeping an eye on Charlton’s set-pieces today.
What Orient can take confidence from is their shootout record this season; in addition to their playoff win over Stockport County, they won on penalties in the FA Cup twice to reach the fourth round.
The teams
Both sides are unchanged from their playoff semi second-leg wins.
Charlton: Mannion, Ramsay, Jones, Gillesphey, Small, Coventry, Gilbert, Docherty, Edwards, Godden, Campbell
Subs: Maynard-Brewer, Mitchell, Watson, Anderson, Berry, Aneke, Mbick
Leyton Orient: Keeley, Galbraith, Beckles, Edmonds-Green, Currie, Agyei, Brown, Donley, Clare, O’Neill, Kelman
Subs: Phillips, James, Happe, Williams, Ball, Markanday, Abdulai
“That was the music I was brought up on. My dad loved Eric Clapton, Queen, Michael Jackson, so I was educated from there. I grew up in the 80s, probably the best era for bands and I caught the tail end of the Haçienda and indie era, which led into the 90s. I used to do a bit of DJing when I was a kid, when I was [a player] at Brighton, house music. I wasn’t any good but I had my decks and I love my music.”
Ben Fisher and Nathan Jones talked football, too.
Preamble
Wembley makes sense for this one. It’s an hour-long trip across town for Leyton Orient and Charlton, both sides hoping for the Championship to be their final destination.
For the Addicks, promotion would end a five-year absence from the second tier, too long for a club that was once part of the Premier League establishment. Half a decade is nothing for the O’s; they’ve been absent from the division for 43 years, tasting the National League experience as recently as 2019.
Nathan Jones is the man leading Charlton, fresh off his Shawshank impression in the semi-final win over Wycombe, responsible for revitalising a side that were three points above the relegation zone when he took over last February. Richie Wellens, three years into the job at Orient, is gunning for a second promotion after they won League Two in 2023.
Charlton finished fourth this season, Orient sixth but with six wins on the bounce. In other words, it’s going to be a tight one. Kick-off’s at 1.01pm BST.
