Andy Melville looks forward to Charlton
United head for The Valley tonight to take on Charlton Athletic in the first round of the Capital One Cup. Buoyed by a superb 4-1 opening day win at Portsmouth, United are buzzing but as coach Andy Melville told Yellow Player nobody is getting carried away at this early stage of the season:
“It has been a good atmosphere around the training ground, everyone is in good spirits and hopefully we can keep it going because we are all looking forward to Charlton.” Andy said. “The lads are pretty steady. There is a lot of experience in there and there is a lot of experience among the coaching staff so we are pretty level-headed in general. Having said that, there is a little bit of momentum with us and we don’t want to stop that so there has to be a balance, but I am sure that we will be OK.”
The U’s are expected to make one or two changes to the side tonight but whoever plays Andy will expect the same commitment and energy that was the hallmark of the side at Fratton Park in the season opener:
“We are thinking of changing it and mixing it up a little bit” he told us. “We will take a look at one or two things and assess them in training then go from there. It is going to be a difficult game against Charlton obviously. We know Chris Powell and Alex Dyer quite well and they are going to be up for it so we have to make sure we are right as well. Oxford fans might remember Alex, and I was at West Ham with him as well. We know that Charlton will compete so we have to make sure we match that.”
For the second game running United are underdogs but that is something that Andy believes can work in their favour tonight:
“It is a brilliant for clubs like ourselves going to The Valley. There is no pressure on us; we can play with a bit of freedom and as I say try and keep the momentum going. We played well on Saturday and can look to strive on all together. Hopefully we can go there and get a good result again tonight.”
See the whole interview plus a 12 minute preview show only in Yellow Player now.