Lee Bowyer explains team selection for Welling pre-season friendly

Supporters will have their first chance to see Charlton in action ahead of the new season on Saturday afternoon when the Addicks face Welling United (12.30pm).

The annual pre-season friendly at Park View Road kicks off at the earlier time of 12.30pm – giving fans time to also watch England’s third-place play-off in the FIFA World Cup – and comes seven days after Charlton’s 3-3 draw with Queens Park Rangers.

Lee Bowyer fielded two XIs in that game, one for the first half and one for the second, and he says that he’ll adopt the same approach for the clash against The Wings.

“We’re going to have two teams for each 45,” he said. “They’ll both be strong teams, exactly the same as what we did against QPR.

“Then we’re against Cambridge on Tuesday [in a behind-closed-doors game] with three, 30-minute games. We’re building the players’ minutes up, so it will go 60 minutes for the starters and 30 minutes for the second group.

“The ones that have done 30 will then do 60 on the Wednesday [against Dulwich Hamlet] and the ones that have done 60 the day before will do 30.

“For Crawley, we will then start giving 80 or 90 minutes to the lads, to start building towards getting minutes under their belts regarding full games. Obviously, Brighton and Norwich we’ll do the same.”

Charlton kick-off the new League One season against Sunderland in three weeks but Bowyer says that, for the time being, minutes remain as vital as results and performances.

He said: “The most important thing for us is all of the players getting minutes under their belts because, at the moment, they are all in contention.

“They are all training and giving us 100 per cent in every session. The most important thing for us is to get from now to the game against Sunderland without any injuries.

“At the moment, we’re doing ok regarding that. We’ve just got to keep managing it right and hopefully I have the headache of picking the XI for Sunderland.”

Tickets for Saturday’s game at Welling will be on sale from Park View Road. Tickets will be priced at: £15 adults, £10 over 65s, £10 12 to 16-year-olds, £3 U12s. All seating will be subject to an extra £2 charge.

Supporters unable to attend the match will be able to listen to live audio commentary on Valley Pass. A monthly pass is priced at £6.50 and a seasonal pass – giving you access until the end of June 2019 – is priced at £60.

To sign up for Valley Pass, please click here.

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