Ahead of Blackburn Rovers’ visit to The Valley on Saturday, Lee Bowyer revealed his excitement at playing in front of a packed out stadium.
The game was selected for the annual Football For A Fiver campaign and tickets in the home stands sold out last week.
Bowyer said: “It’s going to be great. I think the last time we sold out was the play-offs. The place is going to be bouncing.
“Seeing The Valley full again just shows how far the club has come since I’ve been in charge. Would you have said we’d be playing in a Championship game in front of a full stadium? None of us would have dreamed that.
“Moving forward that can only be positive for us. Every player wants to play in front of sell-out crowds. Especially our fans, who don’t stop singing from start to finish.”
Following on from the midweek win against Nottingham Forest, Bowyer reported no new injury concerns, but he is closely monitoring the minutes played ahead of a busy period.
“The most important thing is we have to try to balance the players’ minutes. That’s the difficult thing at the moment.
“Especially the ones who are playing, who have been out for a long time. We have to manage them the best we can.
“We’ve got numbers now, so we can rest players. We left Jonny [Williams] and Andre [Green] behind on Tuesday. It’s a luxury I’ve got now which I’m not used to.”
With 14 league games to go, Bowyer set a target number of points for Charlton to retain their status as a Championship club, calling on the fans to get the team over the line.
“Nothing’s changed - the points we need to get, from what experienced people are telling me, is 47 points," he said.
“We’re on 36 now, so we need another 11 points, but that’s the minimum.
“We’ve got 14 games left and there’s a lot of points to be played for - at home especially.
“Our fans are going to play a massive part in that - I have no doubt.”
Article by Liam Roche
Get your tickets for our game against Luton Town at The Valley on February 22nd.
