Charlton travel to an AFC Wimbledon side fighting for their lives.

The Dons have made headlines in the FA Cup over the last month with their giant-killing of West Ham in the fourth round and their narrow defeat by Millwall in the fifth last weekend.

Those column inches may have blurred the plight of many but their status as a third-tier team is hanging by a thread.

Recent results however has injected some optimism into the Dons faithful and they’re starting to believe the ‘great escape’ is on.

Recent league wins at Walsall and a last minute 4-3 win Rochdale have given Wally Downes side hope they can get off the bottom of the table.

At The Valley the Addicks ran out deserved 2-0 winners in a match where both sides finished with ten men, but with Charlton still looking a little rusty in front of goal a buoyant Wimbledon will be fancying their chances against their former old boy Lyle Taylor.

Charlton’s ‘Head to Head' with AFC Wimbledon

PL:33 W:8 D:5 L:20

AFC Wimbledon's League Form

PL:7 W:2 D:2 L:3

Last Six Results

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Star Man

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Scott Wagstaff is a name that all Charlton fans will remember.

The 28-year old played over 100 games for the Addicks in a five-year spell that ended in 2013.

But having been released by Gillingham at the start of the campaign The Dons picked up the all action midfielder and he’s been one of the few bright sparks in a poor campaign for the ‘Crazy-gang.’

The bearded messiah’s brace in their FA Cup fourth win over West Ham put him on the back of every paper, but don’t be fooled into thinking he’s a one game wonder.

If Wimbledon overturn the odds and survive the season, there’s no doubt Wagstaff will have had a part to play in avoiding the League One trap-door.

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The Manager

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Wally Downes was appointed as Neil Ardley’s heir following his dismal in November.

Downes is a legend amid Wimbledon fans having amassed 207 appearances for Wimbledon F.C between 1979-1988 and that status will be confirmed if he performs miracles and avoids the drop.

Downes has already performed minor miracles at Kingsmeadow by getting people to believe that survival is possible.

Back-to-back wins at Walsall and Rochdale have seen them close the gap to four points and with a run of ‘favourable’ fixtures, Downes knows he can’t afford any slip ups.

“When you come home you know that our home performances have to be promotion level now.

“You’ve got to win your home games and I think it’s been a little bit difficult for us to make that transition in the last couple of home games.

“But hopefully now, after a good win on Tuesday night they’ll be able to take that on, because the cup has been a wonderful distraction for us but now we’ve got 13 cup finals – not in the FA Cup final but 13 of our own cup finals.

“While we’ve been in the cup in the last month, five weeks, teams that are in the bottom four with us have had good runs and stuck three or four wins together, two or three wins together and we’ve got left behind.

“We haven’t had that sort of a run yet because we’ve had some difficult games: Sunderland away, Coventry and Portsmouth; but now we’re playing teams sort of in the same position as us and these are the games that are going to define our season.”

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