MATCH PREVIEW | Swansea City v Charlton

Charlton will be looking to start 2020 on the right foot when they make the trip across the border to Wales to take on Swansea City on Thursday evening (7.45pm).

A disappointing end to 2019 saw the Addicks slip to a 2-1 defeat to Derby County on Monday as injuries continue to cast their shadow across the Charlton camp.

After a strong start to the season, Swansea are well amongst the play-off dogfight and will provide another stern test for Lee Bowyer and his team. Despite frustrating results in their last two games (a 3-1 defeat at Brentford and a 0-0 draw with struggling Barnsley), the Swans are still well within touching distance of the play-off places in ninth position and will be looking to propel themselves back into the mix when the Addicks travel to the Liberty.

Following Monday's defeat, Lee Bowyer said that he will have no bodies returning for the Swansea clash and his troubles were only added to when striker Macauley Bonne pulled up with a hamstring injury, leaving a real headache in risking playing Lyle Taylor who has only just returned from a long lay-off himself.

Chuks Aneke, Tomer Hemed, Jonny Williams, Josh Cullen, Jake Forster-Caskey, Sam Field, Beram Kayal, George Lapslie, Lewis Page and Ben Amos all continue to remain sidelined.

For the Swans, defender Joe Rodon and winger Jordon Garrick will to miss out with long-term injuries but Swansea have welcomed back Wayne Routledge who picked up a calf injury earlier in December.

They will, however, be without striker Sam Surridge who has been recalled from his loan at the Liberty by parent club AFC Bournemouth.

Charlton Boss Lee Bowyer: "If anything is our strength it is our fight and our togetherness. Maybe the Christmas period is catching up with us? It might be, but I don’t like seeing my teams do that [the performance at Derby]. We’ll have to dust them down and move on. We can’t let that happen again.”

Swansea defender Ben Wilmot: "It will be another tough game but we are glad it is at the Liberty and we can try and pick up points at home. We really enjoy playing at the Liberty so we are looking forward to it.

“Our aim against Barnsley was to finish the year on a high and we didn’t quite get it over the line in the end, but we look forward to Charlton and hope to start the year off well. “

The Addicks have faced Swansea 45 times, playing out 17 wins apiece with 11 draws. The result earlier on in the season saw a spirited Charlton side slip to a 2-1 defeat at The Valley after Yan Dhanda and Andre Ayew cancelled out Jonathan Leko's opener.

With few games being played in recent years between the two sides, the last, and first time, that Charlton recorded a result at The Liberty Stadium (excluding the Football League Trophy victory over the Swans' U21 side in December 2017) was in February 2009 when Nicky Bailey's deflected effort from saw the Londoners pick up a point after the hosts had taken the lead through Nathan Dyer.

Peter Bankes will be the man in the middle on Thursday night. So far this season, he has refereed 13 matches, including five Premier League fixtures, dishing out 59 yellow cards and one red.

He also took charge of the Addicks' return fixture with the Swans at The Valley in October.

525 Addicks snapped up tickets for the trip to the Liberty Stadium. Swansea say they will not be selling on the night.

Supporters can follow all the build-up to the game on Charlton's official Instagram account, official Twitter account and Facebook page.

Live audio commentary of the game from Charlton commentators Terry Smith and Greg Stubley will be available on Valley Pass in all countries. To purchase the relevant Valley Pass subscription, click here

The game has been selected for live coverage on Sky Sports and international broadcast.

It means the game will only be available to stream on Valley Pass in certain countries where an EFL broadcast deal is not in place.

The match will also be televised on Sky Sports Football.

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