Boro vs Charlton Athletic

Saturday 31st October 2026

All Hallows’ Eve brings a  fixture against Charlton, whose nickname, the Addicks, is, according to an article I found on Reddit; “a dialectal descendant of “Haddocks”, rooted in Charlton’s riverside, dockland community. Oral usage by local supporters and press transformed a fish-trade nickname into the enduring sobriquet for Charlton Athletic.”

So, something fishy this way comes…

Despite the auguries — playing our 13th league game on Halloween — we should have nothing to fear from Charlton. I’ve spent some time trawling previous results and can only conclude that the Addicks fans will be left feeling crabby on Saturday evening.

A conclusive win would be brill and leave our doubters to dab their eyes in disbelief, as the Red Faction get a skate on to prepare for the next game.

Charlton’s prospects look bleak and our supporters should expect a whale of a time, leaving the Championship minnows to carp about the result.

Some will point to our habit of losing the ball in transition, but surely that will prove a red herring, as Tommy Codway tears them apart and leaves their full-back floundering. In fact, any suggestion that we’ll fail to break them down is just codswallop - there’s no way we’ll let them off the hook.

I’m hoping to see AC-D float in off the wing, with our shark attack in the right plaice at the right time. Then it’s a case of the Addicks taking the bait: hook, line and Lankshear.

After we batter them, the sheer scale of our win should be enough to shine a ray of light on our promotion ambitions.

It’ll be good for the sole too, and if we do seal a Boro victory and pick up three points, it’ll maintain our lofty perch at the top of the league and leave our promotion rivals reeling.

The net result? Three points in the hold would be a welcome catch and a reminder that the Boro are not just another fish in the Championship sea.

A loss? That would be Pollocks (and I don’t mean Jamie).

Fin

Feel free to groan at every one of those awful piscatorial puns. There’s no one else to blame, because it’s all my own work on this occasion, with no AI assistance, as you can probably tell from the puntastic content and lowering of quality.

We’re away in Ripon until Friday, so I haven’t had as much time to work on my preview this time, but hopefully it’s enough to get us started.

Having watched Charlton lose to Norwich on Saturday on Sky, I’m confident of a win, all the more so after Boro’s magnificent performance last Friday. I’ll go for 3-1 including a second half penalty - I wonder who will take it.