Charlton Athletic fired one particular Southampton warning - it involves Tom Fellows | OneFootball

FLW's Charlton fan pundit has pinpointed Southampton's biggest threat ahead of Saturday's clash

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Charlton Athletic return to league action this weekend following the last international break of 2025.

The Addicks will be hosting Southampton, as they seek a return to winning ways after their defeat against Wrexham last time out.

Nathan Jones’ side could climb back into the play-off places with a win, at least temporarily, as they play before most of the weekend’s other fixtures.

However, the visitors are coming to the Valley off the back of consecutive wins under interim coach Tonda Eckert.

Charlton currently lead the Saints by five points going into their meeting this weekend, and are ninth in the Championship table.

Charlton Athletic warned of Tom Fellows’ threat for Southampton

When asked who the team should be wary of this weekend, FLW’s Charlton fan pundit Chris Woodward named summer signing Tom Fellows as the Saints’ biggest threat.

He believes the defensive injuries in Jones’ side make the left flank a major concern, and one that the winger could exploit as a weakness.

“For me, Tom Fellows will be the most difficult man to keep quiet this weekend against Southampton,” Woodward told Football League World.

“Last season, he was arguably one of the best wingers in the Championship at West Brom, and despite him not hitting the ground running this season he’s looked so much better in Southampton’s last two games since Will Still’s departure.

“He’s a much more old school winger, being fast, direct, liking to take players on, which is often the type of player Charlton have found a bit more difficult to defend against this season.

“Like we’ve seen with Emakhu at Millwall or Jack Clarke at Ipswich, as opposed to more physical, attacking presences or modern day wingers, respectively.

“Combine that with Charlton missing our starting left wing-back in Josh Edwards, and our starting left centre-back in Amarii Bell.

“We’ve had to resort to playing an attack-minded winger, which has either been Tyrese Campbell or Onel Hernandez at left wing-back, which has often led to our left centre-back Macaulay Gillesphey being isolated, who is defensively weakest when he’s standing attackers up one on one due to his lack of pace and ability.”

Woodward highlighted the 1-0 win over West Brom as an example of how Southampton may approach this weekend’s fixture, suggesting that how Charlton defend the box could be crucial to getting a positive result.

“We saw West Brom try to exploit this with Iling-Junior and Isaac Price, and they managed to get in behind our left side a few times,” he added.

“Therefore, I expect this is the type of game Tom Fellows will relish, being able to expose Charlton’s current defensive injury crisis and take every opportunity he receives the ball to drive at our defence.

“I think we’ll struggle to contain him in one-on-one situations out wide, and we’ll instead focus on defending our box when he does look to shoot or cross, which we've been very good at this season.”

Charlton are ninth in the Championship table as the league returns to action following the international break.

The upcoming weeks could be crucial for Jones’ side, as the clash with the Saints will be their first of 11 fixtures between now and 4 January.

Victory would give the Addicks a total of 26 points from their opening 16 points, and would keep them in promotion contention.

Charlton will host Southampton on 22 November in a 12.30pm kick-off.

Tom Fellows threat could be key for Charlton

If Fellows is given the freedom to exploit Charlton’s defensive weaknesses, then he will be difficult to stop, even if his form this season hasn't looked as strong as it did last year.

That makes him a crucial figure in Jones’ preparation for this weekend’s clash, as keeping him quiet could be the key to getting a result that could make a solid platform for the busy weeks ahead.

While the table suggests the London outfit should be favoured to at least get something from the game, there’s no denying that the Saints have under-performed, and that this will be a tough fixture.

So if they can keep Fellows quiet, then this could prove a very important result for Charlton going into this festive period.