Nigel Adkins set to take charge as Charlton face Wimbledon at Plough Lane

Nigel Adkins will be hoping to take Charlton by storm with a debut win this weekend as the Addicks face AFC Wimbledon.

Ex-Southampton and Scunthorpe boss Adkins, is set to take his first game in charge of Charlton Athletic and is ready to start a new positive era in the Addicks’ future.

His first game in charge comes against a local London team, AFC Wimbledon, as the Dons are hoping to get out of the relegation zone, however Charlton are looking to continue their form and secure their place in the Play-Offs.

Adkins fits into Charlton Athletic owner Thomas Sandgaard’s current visions, as the Danish-born owner also agrees with his philosophies as a manager.

This refers to his use of academy prospects getting more playing experience and becoming more featured faces in the side, another factor that Sandgaard enjoys is Adkins media presence as he is very active online.

The 56-year-old manager has had previous success in gaining teams promotion from this league, for example; Scunthorpe United. His outstanding period as manager was gaining two promotions to get Southampton into the Premier League, which he hopes to reenact for Charlton getting the London team back to the big time.

The new Addicks boss sounded excited to take charge:

“I had a conversation with Thomas and he highlighted where he wants this club to go. It’s an exciting and long-term vision. We all know in football, it’s a challenge. Getting to the Premier League is something that we all want and something that I have done before. I want to achieve that again.”

The Birkenhead-born manager takes over from caretaker manager Johnnie Jackson, who after being 2-0 down against Bristol Rovers, came back with a spirited performance to win 3-2. Adkins took his first training session with the first team yesterday and has high spirits for the next game.

“There is so much to do – we can’t waste a single minute. We have got to try and get the preparation for the players and the team going into the Wimbledon game as quickly as we can to keep the momentum going. It’s 10 games and it’s going to be a very challenging moment in time going forward, but one that we are certainly looking forward to.”

Mark Robinson’s Wimbledon side find themselves in 22nd position, two points away from safety and come into the game without a win in six, although they have picked up four draws from that spell.

Despite their lack of wins they have become a great defensive side during the season and is a big change in philosophy since their 5-2 loss to the Addicks earlier in the season.

They still have a lot of attacking threat with key attacking players, for example, former Addicks forward Joe Pigott, who has scored 13 goals in 33 appearances this season. They have also found themselves being a threat from set-pieces in the last couple of games with three of their goals coming from either corners or free-kicks.

On the other hand, Charlton have been amongst the goals in their last three matches, scoring six goals, four of them coming from on-form striker Conor Washington who has scored 11 goals. Another main scoring threat, Chuks Aneke who has 13 goals this year, which is Aneke’s best scoring season for Charlton so far.

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