Selection headaches all round

CHARLTON Athletic manager Alan Pardew faces the kind of selection headache for Saturday`s clash at The Hawthorns that Albion boss Tony Mowbray had to contend with at Leicester last weekend.

The meeting of second and third in the Championship on Saturday promises to be one of the most intriguing clashes of the season.

Jonathan Fortune`s sending off in Charlton`s 3-1 victory over Ipswich Town at The Valley on Saturday was compounded by fifth yellow cards of the season for fellow defenders Danny Mills and Lloyd Sam.

Chris Powell went off injured during the game, which will leave Pardew without a recognised full back available in the Addicks squad should the former England international fail to recover in time.

Charlton were already coping without long-term injury victims Grant Basey and Ben Thatcher, who are still way from returning to first-team duty.

Hopefully, this will not lull the Baggies into a false sense of security.

Charlton have won their last four games away from home without conceding a goal.

The news on the Albion injury and suspension front is much better.

James Morrison, Ishmael Miller, Martin Albrechtsen, Neil Clement and Kevin Phillips are all back in training following their knee injuries.

And Paul Robinson and Bostjan Cesar will both have completed their one-match bans.

It all combines to pose a selection headache of a different kind for Tony Mowbray, who will be aware of the dangers of rushing the injury victims back too soon.

He will also be aware that the fringe squad players who came into the team at Leicester performed admirably, particularly Shelton Martis and Pedro Pele whose performances were underlined by man-of-the-match awards in some media quarters.