Holmes wants to go

Sheffield United are back in for Ricky Holmes with an enhanced offer and the player wants to go. He wants to play above League One level and the Addicks may even not make the play offs this season: Blades push for deal

Charlton to be put to the blade?

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has urged his fans to get behind the team today, warning them that Charlton have had good results against teams at the top of the table. It will be the last Saturday game of the season at Bramall Lane: Get behind the boys

The CAS trust preview is here: Sharpening shooting boots

Odds are: Sheff Utd 4/9, Draw 7/2, Charlton 13/2.

Konsa has signed a new deal at Charlton, but he is being tracked by Premier League clubs and Charlton may not be able to hold on to him in the summer with the prospect of another player farm profit for Roland: Konsa

I was gazundered, complains Robinson

Karl Robinson has complained that Sheffield United secured the services of Sean Carruthers for less than Charlton were prepared to pay: Gazundered

So why would Carrurthers go to the Blades, who are supposedly the less 'massive' club in Sheffield? Perhaps Carruthers thought they had a better chance of going up than Charlton. Or maybe the toxic situation at The Valley did not appeal to him? It's even possible that he was not that keen on being reunited with his former boss.

Answers on a postcard please.

No fear for Blades

Sheffield United have no concerns that the appointment of Karl Robinson as manager will boost Charlton's performance tomorrow. As their manager points out, Robinson will not be on the pitch: No fear

This is no match against a Chesterfield or Port Fail. The Blades are one of the giants of the division and are eager to get out of it at last so that they can once again confront their city rivals, the Massives.

Our last match against them at this level in 2011/12 resulted in a 1-0 win for the Addicks. Odds are: Charlton 21/10, Draw 23/10, Sheffield Utd 13/10.

Josh Magennis is delighted that his strike partnership with Nicky Ajose is clicking. Not before time: Partnership

Blades scrape through

Our Sheffield United correspondent reports on their 1-0 victory over Stevenage at Bramall Lane: 'Blades just scraped through to the final. With one striker in jail, another suspended, and a third injured, goals are a little hard to come by. At least Huddersfield have as poor a record in play-off finals as we do.'

The heroes of Hertfordshire have been the subject of some media hype, but I always though that they were quite an ordinary side, as was demonstrated by a convincing win over them at The Valley. The 1-0 defeat at Stevenage was a bit of a fluke although it had plenty of pessimists proclaiming that we could forget about promotion.

It's going to be an intrigung final and Jordan Rhodes could be the hero of the hour for Huddersfield. Will they then be able to hold on to him or will he opt for going straight to the Premiership?

Pravda is tweeting that Charlton are definitely interested in Dany M'Guessan. It would be a good move in my view, but Millwall may want him back. However, he certainly looked keen on playing for Charlton.

Massives are among country's top 10 teams

Media celebrations of the massive achievement of Sheffield Wednesday in finishing second in League One are continuing, this triumph completely overshadowing Charlton winning the league with a record equalling 101 points. Today The Football League Paper devotes its Big Interview to a double spread on Owls owner Milan Mandaric who proclaims that the Massives belong in the top ten clubs in the country.

The two Manchester clubs may be top dogs at the moment, but they had better watch out! Incidentally, I was amused that the United fan who was supposed to have been in the Radio 5 studio this morning hadn't turned up. It's a long way from Guildford to Salford!

The outcome of the League 1 play offs is of interest to the Addickted as they will determine one of the teams we play against next year. The Blades had a bore draw against the heroes of Hertfordshire on Friday night. One would think they should win at Bramall Lane. United have won 16 of their 23 home games this season, although they haven't won in their last four matches.

However, a Blade supporting friend of mine says morale has been low since the rape case. Stevenage have not lost to the Blades in three games this season and went 2-0 ahead in the regular league game at Bramall Lane before being pegged back to 2-2. Stevenage supremo Gary Smith has them practising penalties.

If the unbelievable happened and Stevenage won a third successive promotion Championship fans would be exposed to what is essentially still a non-league ground. At least when they played Spurs on television one could see the traffic racing past on the road outside when the hoofing got a bit too boring to watch. Non-league clubs are often denied promotion because they fail to meet strict ground criteria, but no such tests apply in the Football League.

Huddersfied won convincingly at Stadium MK yesterday, although MK Dons fans are blaming an error by referee Darren Deadman which I can well believe given how useless he was when he refereed our games. However, Huddersfield have enough quality to finish them off at home.

So if it is Blades versus Huddersfield at Wembley, will Harold Wilson's team fail in the play offs as usual? I have friends who support both teams, but I have to bear in mind that my discipline's department at Sheffield University is itself simply massive, has made another important transfer signing this month and houses the chair of the research excellence framework panel. The equivalent body last time was headed up by a Huddersfield Town supporter.

My view is the less massive of the two Sheffield sides deserve to go up given their performance over the season as a whole despite their last minute wobble. Apart from anything else it would be one over Wednesday who have now joined Crystal Palace and Millwall on the 'dislike' list at The Valley.

At the other end of the Championship, The Football League Paper are bigging up Carthorse Cole as the key to West Ham's success. The Addickted will remember him for his loan stay at Charlton which he clearly thought was beneath his dignity as shown by his sarcastic acknowledgement of the Covered End when he scored.

I don't have a lot of time for Blackpool because (i) I don't like their owners, (ii) I think their manager is off his trolley, (iii) it's the only away ground where I've been spat at by a player (not at me personally, but the Addickted in general). Also, as my father was born in North Woolwich, he originally supported West Ham until he crossed the river to live in Eltham where his cousin introduced him to the Addicks.

Incidentally this weekend marks the 200th anniversary of the assasination of Spencer Perceval, the only British prime minister to suffer this fate. Growing up at Charlton House and buried in Charlton Church, he is the only prime minister with Addick connections, albeit a bit premature.

Massive celebrations in Sheffield

There were massive celebrations in Sheffield last night as thousands of fans poured into the city centre to celebrate the achievements of Sheffield Wednesday who will be on temporary loan to the Championship pending their return to the Premier League: Massive

The Guardian has published a set of reports from League 1 bloggers (Kish representing Charlton). The Owls representative says, apparently without irony, that it has been a 'massive' season for their club. Interestingly, the Blades representative says that their best away trip was to Charlton and praises our fans. More here: Bloggers

Some Charlton fans have suggested that we should have had a civic celebration in Greenwich. However, the Council has other things on its mind such as the Olympics. Also, Charlton fans are much more geographically dispersed, although I made it to SE7 when we first went up to the Premiership and I still have the flag I bought that day. I also think that our own celebrations were excellent and done in a Charlton style, expressing our faith in the club but without being arrogant.

Following last night's win by Blackpool, Birmingham City and Cardiff City are two of the allegedly smaller clubs the Massives will be facing.

Charlton five points clear

Charlton are five points clear at the top of League 1 after their 2-0 win at Sheffield United today in what would have been a Premier League fixture four years ago.   Perceived big threat Preston lost 2-1 at lowly Orient.  No wonder Chris Powell felt able to say, 'We have made a statement.'

My train took me through Sheffield at 16.20, but I didn't hear the result until 18.15.

Charlton substitute Yann Kermorgant was the hero after he came on in place of Paul Hayes.  After an uneventful 65 minutes, with the match looking as if it might be heading for a 0-0, the bouncing Breton stepped off the bench and headed home with his first touch from Johnnie Jackson's corner.   Kermorgant has now scored twice in three substitute appearances.

And two minutes later he set up Bradley Wright-Phillips, who finished at the second attempt from close range.  Blades' Ched Evans hit the post from outside the box deep into injury time.

Someone who was there has said, 'Great win. Worked hard in a tense first half and survived a couple of goalline scares, although we had a good chance at the other end which was fluffed by Morrison, I think. Solly was excellent again.'

'Second half more even, then the substitution won the game. United couldn't deal with the Frenchman in the air and BWP had another chance to score moments before he did.'

'Hamer had a great game, although he misread one first half cross. It was the sort of ground-out but ultimately convincing win that persuades you we will go up, albeit it's too early to say that really.'

'What we can say is that those looking to make a judgement after 10/11 games ought to be singing Powell's praises if they have any sense of fairness because no one could reasonably ask for any more over the 11 games.'

Powell asks for calm and focused approach

Chris Powell has called for a calm and focused approach at tomorrow's match against Sheffield United with the Addicks playing to their strengths and not being distracted by the ferbile atmosphere in the stadium.  Rather surprisingly this report from the steel city says that Charlton are 'two points ahead of second placed Charlton'.   It is encouraging that our second string side are now in the league and could also get promoted: http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/addicks_boss_concentrates_on_calm_1_3824406

The feeling in Sheffield is that the match against Wycombe shows an inability to take scoring opportunities and that they lack a player with an eye for goal in the way that Bradley Wright-Phillips does.   There is a concern that they may be exposed as 'playground bullies' by Charlton with a lack of real quality: http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/danny_takes_long_term_view_1_3824415

I must say that I find this a really difficult match to call.   It really could go one of three ways, but it is certainly a key match.   However, defeat should not be interpreted as meaning that automatic promotion is outside our grasp.

The bookies have Sheffield United as firm favourites for the game.   Ironically, I have to be at a 80th birthday celebration in Hull and could well be travelling back via Sheffield as the game ends.