A disappointed Lee Bowyer said his side’s 4-2 loss at Burton Albion reminded him of Charlton’s 5-3 defeat at Scunthorpe United in the Addicks’ 2018/19 promotion season.
The Charlton Manager lambasted “silly mistakes” that he said may not happen again all season, in a game that had so many chances he felt it could have finished 7-7.
Bowyer said: “It was poor from start to finish. Too many people just going through the motions. No matter where teams are in the division, you can’t give them a two-goal head start and the two goals we gave away were just errors, individual errors. I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Maybe because we were unbeaten in eight we think we can just turn up to games and win – it is not that simple. I just reminded them in there – that isn’t acceptable, that will never be acceptable.
“I think we had one of these crazy nights before, against Scunny, where we just gave away crazy goals. I said to Jacko [Assistant Manager, Johnnie Jackson], when they got their third goal, that it just reminds me of that game.
“Tonight it was like we never played football before. Conor Washington came on and he could have had a hat-trick, he was only on 20 minutes!. The game should have been about 7-7 – it was just not a normal game of football. I can’t put it down to anything, that is not like us at all and it was the more senior players that were doing it. I just want to put it to bed and get ready for the weekend.”
Charlton once again started without a recognised centre back, with returning pair Jason Pearce and Deji Oshilaja on the bench, but Bowyer admitted it is not clear yet when they will be ready to start. He said: “They played in the 23s game about 60 or 70 minutes but it is a big jump. Pearcey has been out a long time. To just come and jump in to first team football is hard.”
The Addicks travel to Ipswich Town on Saturday for their third away game in a row. Bowyer added that his team need to use the game to refocus: “I was saying we were miles ahead of where I thought we would be and you’ve just seen that there. We looked like a team that hadn’t played football together before. We’re going to have dips for sure. Anyone that thinks we are just going to walk into that top six, it doesn’t just happen like that, you have to earn it. There is a long, long way to go. It is a wake-up call though and a wake-up call for some of the players.
“They’ll be disappointed, because they are professionals and no-one likes to lose at the end of the day, we’ll go again on Thursday.”
Bowyer’s full press conference is available below for Valley Pass subscribers and supporters who purchased the Burton Albion game. Click here to purchase a Valley Pass subscription.