James Shea believes Charlton’s play-off momentum is why they’ve fared better than Luton so far in the Championship, but insists their progress shows what the Hatters can still achieve.
Town host Lee Bowyer’s men tonight, aiming to end a run of five straight defeats that has left them one place above the relegation zone on goal difference, while the Londoners have nine more points and sit more comfortably in 13th.
The Hatters players were already in celebration mode in the summer, after winning the League One title, when the Addicks had to go through the end of season lottery, eventually triumphing over Sunderland in the final at Wembley.
Shea said: “Look at Charlton, they’ve had a great start to the season. They were with us last year, so it shows you that it can be done. We just hopefully need that tiny bit of luck and the tide will turn.
“I think they’ve carried their momentum from the play-off final. They probably had a shorter break than anyone else and they’ve carried the momentum through.
“It’s massive. If you get that one win, it leads to two, leads to three and you just keep riding that wave. That’s what we need at the minute. We just need to put a couple of wins together and hopefully we can start that on Tuesday.”
It was Charlton that ended Town’s 28-game unbeaten streak last season, and Shea said: “It’s another game, really. There’s no feelings about them beating us when we were 28 games unbeaten. It doesn’t really matter to us, it’s just another game that we want to win.”
Luton boss Graeme Jones had a watching brief at the tail end of last term, as temporary boss Mick Harford guided Luton to the title.
Talking about Charlton’s start to this term, he said: “I think they’ve recruited well. They’ve got more points than us and they’ve had a really, really solid start to the season.
“Speaking to Mick Harford, they were the team that were coming up on the rails. They were the team that he was concerned about and managed to stay ahead of them. I think they’ve progressed really well.
“It looks like they’ve had a three or four week break over the summer only, so they never lost too much. They’ve been competitive in every game and they’ll be competitive tomorrow night.
“If you remember Lee Bowyer the player, his teams represent him, without a doubt, and we’ll have to earn the right if we’re going to get something from the game.
“He plays courageous football, Lee. They’re committed to it, you can see it. I think it’s the world against them and he’s done extremely well, but they’ve got some capable players, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
