Sky Sports pundit David Prutton believes Charlton Athletic look 'vulnerable' as Lee Bowyer's side continue to battle relegation from the Championship.

The Addicks are currently one point above the drop zone and are desperately looking to avoid falling back down to League One.

It has been a season of ups and downs for the SE7 side, who at the start of the campaign did not look like a team who were going to be fighting to stay up.

However, Lee Bowyer's side have since slid down the table and they will be hoping they can achieve as many points as possible in their final ten games to remain in the Championship for another season.

Prutton, who was speaking in the latest edition of the Sky Sports EFL podcast, thinks that Charlton have a fight on their hands to stay in the division.

"I think that they look vulnerable," he said.

“We look at the first third of the season and we thought that Charlton had made a pretty decent fist of getting back to this level and almost getting ahead of themselves."

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The Addicks won four of their first six league games at the start of the campaign, which saw them occupy the higher reaches of the table.

However, Prutton believes that a number of factors has influenced their alarming downwards spiral.

"There’s been injuries and off-field stuff which compared to previous stuff that they’ve dealt with has been fairly positive," he said.

“But there’s still been stuff that they’ve needed to address."

The 38-year-old also added that in the long-run, Charlton's positive experience at the turn of the season can stand them in good stead, as he believes that it showed that the side can compete against the best sides in the division.

“It has to be making sure that they’re okay but maybe, just maybe, they’ll benefit from what they’ve done at the start of the season in the final knockings.”

The Addicks are in action this weekend against Middlesbrough at The Valley, in what is a crucial six-pointer in the fight to stay up.

The Verdict

Charlton have a difficult run-in ahead of them, and because of how close the teams are at the bottom of the league table, setting a points tally to reach may prove to be short-sighted.

The Addicks come up against both Leeds and Brentford away from home, but also have a crucial six-pointer against Wigan in their penultimate game of the season.

Judging by Prutton's comments, the EFL expert expects the Addicks to just about avoid the drop, but no team can take things for granted as a lot can change in ten games.