'Good' - Interim Charlton Athletic boss makes prediction about Blackpool

Interim Charlton Athletic boss Curtis Fleming says he sees similarities with Blackpool ahead of their EFL League One clash.

The Addicks come to Bloomfield Road with a change in manager. Michael Appleton was relieved of his duties shortly after the full-time whistle following their latest defeat to Northampton Town. Fleming, who had only arrived as an assistant coach earlier this month has now been thrust into The Valley hot seat, as the South London side search for their third permanent manager of the campaign.

The Republic of Ireland defender who held the same role at Bristol City back in October - takes charge of the team alongside Jason Pearce and has been complimentary about the opposition leading up to kick-off. He earmarked their goal threat which boasts the likes of Jordan Rhodes and Kyle Joseph, as well as drawing similarities between the two sides.

“They’re a good footballing team," said Fleming to Charlton's official club website.

"I’ve played against Neil Critchley’s teams before and they are a goal threat. They play some good stuff and a shape not too dissimilar to us, I think it’ll be a really good game.

"We have to not go away from the fact that we are a decent team as well; we play some good stuff, but we haven’t been as effective as we should be in both the attacking and defensive thirds. We have enough in the team to win it and that is what I will be hammering home."

Charlton go in to the match on a bad run of form and Blackpool will be favourites given the situation. They are on a 12-game winless run and have not kept a clean sheet in the league since October.

Fleming told the team some hard truths about their poor run of form, and that they must now act. Charlton had been tipped for promotion after a decent amount of investment in the playing staff but find themselves a whole 19-points off of the play-offs. Another season in the third tier of English football beckons for the former Premier League side.

“We can look at the form, but we have to change that," added Fleming.

"There’s no doubt that the results have to pick up - we haven’t kept a clean sheet in 14 games. We need to keep a clean sheet.

“I’d rather be looking up than down, but we have got to stand up and say, ‘look, what is happening?’ We spoke to the lads about it again today - words are great, words are lovely but words mean nothing without action.

"You can say you’re going to do this and do that, but it ends up as hot air if there’s no action. We go away to a very good team on Saturday and we need to be on it.”