After the euphoria of the last couple of weeks, a win at Blackburn and then completing the double over Leeds, it is time to put that all behind us and get on with the job of looking for more points to add to the 73 we've already won.
Next stop is Charlton, who have just had a morale boosting home win against Bournemouth to climb out of the bottom three and we are going to have to be at our best to come home with anything.
A win would be our ninth on the road this season. We've already collected 31 away points and a win would mean the best return from away fixtures in 12 years, since the season we missed out on the play offs when 35 were won.
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| Ben Mee is ready for a different challenge |
But it is not records we're looking for, as much as they are enjoyable; the aim is clearly to get the three points, and one point if we can't get a win, as we continue to add points to our total to ensure we finish the season in the top two.
We've got another ten challenges left this season, but, as the manager continues to tell us, it is one game at a time and this is one we face with potentially more than one influential player missing and on a pitch that looks more suitable for kids with buckets and spades than it does for playing football.
Having played three games in six days between the Blackburn and Leeds game, we've had a week to prepare for tomorrow's game. Left-back Ben Mee said of that: "It's been a good chance to get back to what we do on the training ground and recovering from the games that we've had.
"To be honest, though, I prefer when games come thick and fast. We've had three in six or seven days and it was really good to play in them. We got some great results as well, seven points out of nine, which was brilliant."
Looking towards the Charlton game, he added: "It will be a different challenge going to a team that is struggling and it may be a scrappy game, we don't know.
"We're not sure what the pitch is like down there at the minute, either, but we've dealt with different challenges throughout the season, so hopefully we can get over this one and go and win the game."
Mee will line up in a Burnley team that is expected to show at least one change from that which beat Leeds last Saturday. Danny Ings remains out and it is now looking increasingly likely that Kieran Trippier will be missing injured for the first time since he joined the Clarets in the summer of 2011. Previously he's missed two games, both because of suspension.
There is another regular first team player who is struggling to be fit, and, I am told, it will be left as late as possible to determine whether he can play.
If he does come through then I expect our team to be: Tom Heaton, Chris Baird, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Sam Vokes, Ashley Barnes. Subs: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Steve Hewitt, Michael Kightly, Junior Stanislas, Keith Treacy.
What to make of Charlton. They came back up to the Championship at the end of the 2011/12 season having amassed 101 points to win League One. It was manager Chris Powell's first full season in charge and last season he took them to a 9th place finish in the Championship.
All was looking quite good for them but things have taken a dramatic turn this season. They didn't start as well and by the end of 2013 were in 19th place and that's when the changes came.
In early January the club was sold to Roland Duchâtelet, the owner of Belgian Pro League team Standard Liege and suddenly the club's policy changed.
During that transfer window there were a number of players arrived on loan from the Belgian club, and Duchâtelet's other clubs in Europe whilst two of Charlton's better players, Dale Stephens and Yann Kermogant, were sold to Brighton and Bournemouth respectively.
Things took a downturn result wise but they did reach the last eight of the FA Cup. However, when they suffered a 6th round defeat against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane they moved quickly to remove Powell, a big crowd favourite. He was unhappy at the transfer policy which was to bring in those players not getting first team football at Liege.
Powell has been replaced by José Riga, a Belgian and former Standard Liege manager. He had been most recently been working at AC Milan with the young players.
He's been in charge for three games so far and they haven't conceded a single goal. They drew 0-0 against Huddersfield at home and then away at local rivals Millwall before beating Bournemouth 1-0 last Tuesday with a stoppage time winner from defender Dorian Dervite.
Beaten Bournemouth were certainly unhappy with the surface they had to play on at The Valley. Other than the joke pitch at Blackpool it was as bad as anything in the Championship last season and this season has probably won the accolade of the worst.
Former Burnley boss Eddie Howe said after Tuesday's game: "It was certainly not idea. You can warn players and prepare for it, but , ultimately, there isn't a lot you can do. We can't change the way we play because of players aren't built for it so we had to try to manager it as best we could."
Bournemouth are not the only side to struggle there with only Birmingham, whose best option as we saw last week is to hit long balls into the box, having won there since mid-December.
The midweek win against Bournemouth took Charlton out of the bottom three, above Millwall on goal difference, and they currently have three games in hand on all of the clubs around them other than Barnsley who have only played two games more.
Their problem this season has certainly been scoring goals. A return of 25 goals is six lower than any other club in the Championship. However, they've conceded just 41 and only six clubs, including ourselves, have conceded less.
The leading goalscorer so far in the league for Charlton is Kermogant with five which leaves Johnnie Jackson with four as the highest scorer still with the club.
Three players have scored three times but again two of them are no longer there. Stephens is one, and our former loan player Cameron Stewart, the Blackburn badge kisser who is now sitting on the subs bench at Leeds is the other. Simon Church is the current player with three goals.
For tomorrow's game they have injury doubts over Astrit Ajdarević, the commentator's nightmare Reza Ghoochanneijhad and Callum Harriott although there could be a starting place for Jonathan Obika who has returned from Spurs on loan.
He was previously with them around this time last year. He made a total of ten appearances, scoring three goals. Only two of those appearances were starts, the first of them coming against us. This season he had a three month loan with Brighton, his signing making it possible for Ashley Barnes to move to Burnley. He made five substitute appearances before returning to Charlton and coming on just before half time for Harriott against Bournemouth.
Former Claret Leon Cort is on his way back to fitness following an injury that has kept him out since August but he is not expected to feature.
Charlton's team against Bournemouth was: Ben Hamer, Lawrie Wilson, Rhoys Wiggins, Michael Morrison, Dorian Dervite, Danny Green (Marvin Sordell), Jordan Cousins, Diego Poyet, Callum Harriott (Jonathan Obika), Johnnie Jackson, Simon Church. Subs not used: Yohann Thuram-Ulien, Richard Wood, Loic Nego, Bradley Pritchard, Marcus Tudgay.
Last Time We Were There
Last season's 1-0 win at Charlton came as an oasis in the middle of the worst period of the season. We went there on the back of a run of six games without a win and we failed to win any of the five games that followed.
The win came courtesy of the goal of the season from Charlie Austin just two minutes before half time. It was a rare moment of quality to be honest in a game that suffered because of the playing surface.
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| A Burnley debut for Alex Kačaniklić |
It was a game that saw a Burnley debut for new loanee Alex Kačaniklić who had signed from Fulham the day before. He lined up in a team that should, if Kieran Trippier is ruled out, show ten changes tomorrow with only Jason Shackell expected to play.
We dominated the first half of the game with the new man and Junior Stanislas, playing close to his home, prominent. And up front Martin Paterson was having his best game of the season.
Paterson should have given us an early lead; actually he did but the assistant wrongly flagged him offside but throughout the half he gave Michael Morrison a torrid time.
Charlton's policy was to play for free kicks, and referee Simon Hooper was far too generous in awarding them, to get the ball into our box at every opportunity.
Nothing came from them and just those couple of minutes before half time we got the lead we so richly deserved. Danny Lafferty played the ball inside for Charlie who hit a rocket from 30 yards into the top corner in front of us. It totally unfastened the Button in the Charlton goal; he had no chance.
The second half was a different story. They put us under some real pressure at times after we'd made a decent start to the half. The number of big balls into the box we had to contend with was incredible but the closest they came was when Danny Haynes got on the end of a right wing cross only to see Lee Grant make a stunning save.
We stood up to it; the two central defenders Kevin Long and Shackell were outstanding and we got the win that took us back into the top half of the table and had us talking about the play offs again. We should have taken it one game at a time. There were all those poor results to come before it got better.
The teams were;
Charlton: David Button, Lawrie Wilson, Leon Cort, Michael Morrison, Rhoys Wiggins, Bradley Pritchard, Dorian Dervite (Callum Harriott 63), Johnnie Jackson, Danny Haynes, Ricardo Fuller, Jon Obika (Danny Green 63). Subs not used: Ben Hamer, Matthew Taylor, Cedric Evina, Andy Hughes, Scott Wagstaff.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Junior Stanislas (Danny Ings 73), David Edgar, Marvin Bartley, Alex Kačaniklić (Brian Stock 88), Martin Paterson, Charlie Austin (Sam Vokes 84). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Joseph Mills, Keith Treacy.
Previous Games against Charlton
| Last 20 Years | |||||
| Season | Comp | Ven | Res | Att | Scorers |
| 1993/94 | FA Cup | a | 0-3 | 8,336 | |
| 1994/95 | Division One | a | 2-1 | 9,436 | Davis, Robinson |
| h | 2-0 | 10,045 | Eyres, Shaw | ||
| 1996/97 | Coca-Cola Cup | a | 1-4 | 4,874 | Eyres |
| h | 1-2 | 2,281 | Nogan | ||
| 2007/08 | Championship | a | 3-1 | 21,122 | Gray(2 1pen), McCann |
| h | 1-0 | 10,780 | Elliott | ||
| 2008/09 | Championship | a | 1-1 | 21,884 | Thompson |
| h | 2-1 | 14,404 | Thompson(2) | ||
| 2012/13 | Championship | h | 0-1 | 11,405 | |
| a | 1-0 | 20,065 | Austin | ||
| 2013/14 | Championship | h | 3-0 | 10,645 | Ings, Vokes(2) |
Click HERE to see all previous results against Charlton