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CHARLTON v MIDDLESBROUGH BIG MATCH FACTS
Sunday's away match marks Middlesbrough's 2,500th post war League match and the first part of a Valley double header against the team who visited the Riverside in late August and won 3-0 in one of the most forgettable matches in our recent history.
After flirting dangerously close to the relegation zone for the last four months, the improvement shown by Boro in recent weeks has been nothing short of remarkable and a credit to Steve McClaren and his side. Boro have been beaten only twice in the last thirteen matches in all competitions and have collected nine victories in that sequence.
A win at The Valley will move Boro on to thirty-seven points and into thirteenth place with nine matches to play, just seven points and six places behind Arsenal in seventh place. Of course, Boro may not need to finish seventh to gain a European place as we are still involved in the FA and Uefa cups but first things first and hopefully a fifth win on the trot.
Charlton are the Premier League's goalless draw specialists having recorded three 0-0 draws on the trot against Newcastle (a), Aston Villa (h) and Liverpool (a). Boro have gone seven top tier games since a score draw, and eight since a goalless draw. They haven't conceded in 482 minutes (eight hours two minutes) of Premiership football at the Valley, since Jose Antonio Reyes' winner for Arsenal on 26th December.
The Addicks' 2-0 home win over Liverpool on 8th February is their only victory in eight Premiership outings. They've not won in the last four League encounters but they've not lost in five at the Valley, the last time being the previously mentioned Boxing Day fixture against Arsenal. Boro have lost just one of the last eight away from home in all competitions.
Boro are hoping to secure a second successive victory at the Valley. Boro ended Charlton's unbeaten home record last season with a 2-1 win courtesy of an own goal from Talal El Karkouri and a strike from Bolo Zenden.
Charlton have won thirty-three of the eighty-three previous league meetings between the two with Boro just one behind on thirty-two with eighteen draws. Defeat for Boro tomorrow would mean a first ever Premiership double for Charlton over us and a sixth of all time, the last being in 1985/86 in the First Division.
Boro are now sitting on the same number of points as we already had at this stage in two of the last three seasons. The exception was last season when we had fourty-one points after twenty-seven games. Charlton have only once had less points from the first twenty-eight matches of a Premiership season than their current tally of thirty-six. That was twenty-seven in 1998/99 when they finished eighteenth and were relegated.
Charlton need to score one more goal to top 300 goals in Premier League football and Marcus Bent is a hat-trick short of 100 club career goals. Bent has scored for Brentford, Crystal Palace, Port Vale, Sheffield United, Blackburn, Ipswich and Everton as well as Charlton.
Mark Viduka is two goals short of 100 goals in English and Scottish League football and Yakuba is a brace short of fifty English League goals.
Sunday's referee is Alan Wiley of Burntwood, Staffordshire.
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