Charlton boss Lee Bowyer assesses play-off hopes after 1-1 draw at Fleetwood Town
BY LOUIS MENDEZ
Charlton boss Lee Bowyer gave his view on the Addicks’ place in the race for League One’s top six, following a 1-1 draw at Fleetwood Town.
The third-tier table is starting to shape up as some of the sides who had games in hand on the South Londoners continue to catch up with midweek fixtures – although the likes of Accrington and Oxford are above the Addicks despite still having played two fewer.
The point on the Fylde coast leaves Charlton in ninth, three points below a sixth-placed Sunderland side who are also a game behind Bowyer’s side.
When asked how he assesses the Addicks’ hopes of a place in the play-offs at this stage, Bowyer said: “It’s starting to balance out a bit. We’re probably in and around where I expected us at the start of the season. It’s going to be tough.
“Everybody just expects because you’ve been relegated that you get straight back up. It’s not like that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There’s teams that have been building for the last two, three, four, five years to try and get out of this division.
“We’ve had a lot of things that have happened to us in the last year to 18 months and we’ve had to rebuild. The squad now, today, I think we can compete. The problem is that with teams’ headstarts, it makes it more difficult. I still believe that if we do the right things we’ll be in and around it.”
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Unfortunately, my predictions at the beginning of the season have been completely wrong. I thought Charlton would have a slow start, but finish strongly. On todays performance, I think Lee Bowyer says we will be there or thereabouts. I think we will be thereabouts as far as the top six is concerned. As Lee says, some teams have had a lot longer than Charlton to build a team to compete for promotion. I think it is clear, we need to keep certain players and improve the team with more quality in the summer and then make a realistic attempt on promotion. this season, after losing so many players, was a bridge too far. Everything is in place, decent owner, manager and backroom staff, just needs a bit more quality brought in this summer to achieve the dream of promotion, but not this season.