Charlton boss Lee Bowyer spoke to Valley Pass this morning ahead of Saturday’s game away to Fulham.
Below are some of the talking points.
Lee Bowyer's press conference is available on Valley Pass.
On the Fulham game…
"It’s a tough challenge. They are one of the favourites to get promotion, that’s their expectation I think. For me they have the best squad in the division. A lot of Premier League players, a lot of experienced Premier League players. I went to watch them against Reading the other night and they are a good side. They’ve got a lot of players that can hurt you. So defensively we’re going to have to be right, we’re going to have to do the defensive side of the game very well and then once we do that we have to move the ball quickly. Nothing changes from our side."
On Charlton selling out their allocation for Fulham…
"The fans are great aren’t they. Even after the Swansea game their manager came in, a very nice man, he said ‘your fans, that was a great atmosphere, is it always like this?’ and I was like ‘yeah, they’re unbelievable’. I said ‘it didn’t used to be like this but it is now and the fans play a massive part’. He said ‘yeah, you won’t lose too many here’. We always get complements about our fans wherever we go, I’ve had it many, many times and hopefully they just keep doing what they are doing and we’ll keep trying and giving them 100%."
On going against fellow Charlton academy graduate Scott Parker…
"Scotty is a nice fella. I’ve known him from when he was younger obviously, coming through the ranks we had a few battles and then we played together at West Ham and Newcastle. We formed a good partnership at Newcastle. I think he’s quite similar to me really, he’s just a winner, everything is about winning. He’ll have his lads up for it on Saturday, I have no doubt, just the same as I will with our lads. It will be good to come against him and have a different type of battle. I’m looking forward to seeing him, I haven’t seen him for a while, we drop the odd message to each other here and there. It will be good to see Scotty."
On injuries…
"Ben Purrington is out, he’s got a couple of injuries. His calf injury that he’s been playing with, his groin has shown up something as well. He’s done so well trying to get through all these games. Five, six games he’s played with his calf, we can’t push him anymore. We’ve got this break after this game, so hopefully he’ll be ready for the Derby game, that’s the plan.
"There is no hiding from it, we have six, maybe seven injuries. Chuks Aneke is going out there this morning, he’s got something wrong with his groin at the moment, we’re hoping that it is nothing serious, we’ll know more after training. If he lasts training then he’ll be ok for tomorrow, if he doesn’t and then he’s out that will be the seventh injury we’ve got."
Lee Bowyer's press conference is available on Valley Pass.