Lee Bowyer praised his team’s effort in the Addicks’ 2-1 loss to promotion challengers Brentford at Griffin Park.
The Charlton Manager also felt that the penalty which Brentford scored to level the match in the 75th minute was “soft”.
Speaking after the game he said: “I’m proud of the players tonight, it’s not many times you hear me say that when we lose a game, but tonight we were playing against a top, top side who have been hammering teams left, right and centre, before the lockdown and after and we’ve just given them a right scare and on another day we might come away with something. It wasn’t meant to be and we just have to keep fighting.
“I was here at the weekend, watching them against Wigan and I’ve seen what they’ve done to other teams. We looked quite solid, for a large part of the game.
“We hit the crossbar twice, not once, twice, we looked dangerous on the break at times. Half-time didn’t come at a good time for us. Like I said, their subs that came on made a difference. The players are hurting in there because they have given everything again. Losing the way did, on a penalty and from a corner, it is hard to take.”
Speaking of the penalty Bowyer said: “I thought it was soft. I’ve seen challenges like that not being given. The ref said to me that Josh got a touch on the ball and it was the follow through, you can’t control that. I thought the player made it look worse than what it was, some are given and some aren’t and unfortunately for us it went against us.”
The Addicks remain locked in a relegation battle and Bowyer added: “With the situation that we are in we have to fight for every point and put our bodies on the line, we’ve got four games to go and if we keep performing like that and showing our fighting spirit then we can get over the line.”
