Charlton Athletic manager Michael Appleton is preparing to face Blackpool for the first time since he departed the club earlier this year.

Charlton Athletic manager Michael Appleton is preparing to face Blackpool for the first time since he departed the club earlier this year The 47-year-old’s second spell at Bloomfield Road came to an end in January after he was dismissed by the hierarchy.

Ahead of this weekend’s fixture at the Valley, Appleton has identified the players the Addicks will need to be wary of. Speaking to Charlton’s club website, he said: “Blackpool will again be three, potentially five, at the back I would imagine. “They will be slightly different to the teams that we have played so far. When you have got the likes of Jordan Rhodes in your team you are obviously very dangerous because of the amount of goals he has scored.

They have got a lot of pace in the team, certainly on the left or right-hand side depending on what side CJ [Hamilton] plays on. They are a group that I know quite a bit about so it is going to be an interesting game.”

Appleton was initially in charge at Bloomfield Road for a short stint during the 2012/2013 campaign, before re-joining the club last summer.
Despite lasting longer than his initial stay, he was dismissed after sevens with the club sat 23rd in the Championship table.

Since taking over at the Valley last month, the former Blackpool boss has enjoyed a positive start to life with Charlton.

“We are in a good place,” he added.

“The lads are very confident – obviously the home games have been good to us of late and we want to add to that on Saturday.

“After Saturday, we have got the EFL Trophy game to deal with against Aston Villa’s U21s and then it gives us a little bit of a break due to the international break.

“You want to go into that period on a high, so hopefully that will be the case and we can maintain that momentum.”

“The place was absolutely rocking on Tuesday night, especially after we took the lead.”

“The fans stayed with us and were patient in the first half.” As a group, we had to be patient as well. We were, we got our reward, and then we clearly played extremely well in the second half.”