Nottingham Forest v Charlton

A combination of what happened against Wycombe Wanderers last month and Charlton's current Premiership position might make this weekend's onset of the FA Cup seem both a daunting and unwelcome task.

It's Premiership points the Addicks are in desperate need of right now and the mere possibility of another cup upset and its connotations don't bear thinking about.

There's very rarely a negative without a positive in football, however, and the facts of the matter are that Charlton, in their current frame of mind, shouldn't fear Saturday's fixture at Nottingham Forest (3pm).

The club has grown used to accepting and moving on from defeats like Tuesday night's at irresistible Arsenal, with a more accurate assessment of the Addicks' current mood coming from the two previous performances against Fulham and Aston Villa.

However one-sided the Gunners reverse was, it's clear that new manager Alan Pardew has extracted a response from the players he's inherited and a repeat of the Wycombe performance in Nottingham this weekend will be distinctly out of kilter with what is happening in SE7 at present.

With the Addicks set to put in another high-tempo, high-intensity team display, Pardew's men will be favourites to brush aside the League One outfit, though high-flying Forest are sure to provide more stubborn opposition.

The opposition

Missing out on a play-off place by just two points last season, Forest, now under the guidance of Colin Calderwood, are once again moving in the right direction and currently sit third in League One and just one point off the lead.

High-fliers indeed, but Forest are actually amid their first real sticky patch of the campaign with defeats beginning to punctuate a run of form that, all the way up to the end of November, contained only two losses.

Since the 25th of that month, when Calderwood's men beat Millwall 3-1, Forest have strangely lost four of the last seven; a 5-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic on New Year's Day, when two players saw red, confirming that all is not well at The City Ground at present.

What will encourage Charlton further is that even though Forest have only lost three of 13 league games on home soil this season, Calderwood's side has done its best work away from home.

Scunthorpe United, Oldham and most recently Leyton Orient, for whom loan Addick James Walker was on target, have all scored wins at The City Ground this year, where Grant Holt has shot straight to the top of the scorers' list following his switch from Rochdale last January.

And with the Addicks' last win on the road after 90 minutes coming on the identical FA Cup weekend last season at Sheffield Wednesday, this could be the time for a long overdue away success.

Likely line up

Team selection for the clash looks as wide open as it has been since Pardew's first game in charge, as the club's injury problems rage on.

Saturday will provide another, perhaps more accurate, pointer than the Arsenal game as to how much of an attacking threat the Addicks will look without Darren Bent.

As expected, Marcus Bent often cut a lonely figure up front on his own against the Gunners as Pardew elected to pack out the midfield, but the Charlton boss seems sure to revert back to 4-4-2 this weekend.

Hermann Hreidarsson's tendonitis will again sideline the big Icelander, which will probably once again make room for Souleymane Diawara and, with Osei Sankofa suspended, Talal El Karkouri is likely to figure at right-back after switching to that slot when Sankofa saw red at the Emirates Stadium.

Talking of suspensions, Forest will be without both Danny Cullip and Sammy Clingan after the pair were both dismissed in the Oldham rout.

Thomas Myhre

Sankofa's absence could therefore mean a place for Jonathan Fortune, although Radostin Kishishev is another option at right-back.

And there is certain to be one more change in defence as the on-loan Scott Carson has been refused permission to play in the FA Cup by Liverpool, which should mean Thomas Myhre makes his fourth start of the season and a place for Darren Randolph on the bench.

If it is indeed a midfield four, you feel the most likely quartet right now in terms of current form would be stand-in skipper Matt Holland and Bryan Hughes in the middle, with Darren Ambrose and Dennis Rommedahl patrolling the flanks.

Though Kevin Lisbie is back in training following his shoulder injury, the club's only two fit strikers, Marcus Bent and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, look set to link up.

Saturday is one of those games where the Premiership side is on a hiding to nothing, with the worst-case scenario particularly bad for Charlton in their current situation.

Pardew will have recognised as much, and with that in mind he'll have done everything in his power this week to ensure that Charlton aren't among this weekend's early FA Cup casualties.