Charlton Athletic boss Lee Bowyer believes his side are overachieving

Lee Bowyer believes that Charlton Athletic are overachieving this season.

The Addicks lost 3-2 to Gillingham this afternoon and a ninth reverse of the League One campaign saw them drop out of the play-off zone.

But Bowyer – when asked if he and his coaching staff feel under pressure if they don’t deliver at least a top-six finish this season – has again underlined where the club were at in the summer.

Charlton were under a transfer embargo before East Street Investments sold to US-based Dane Thomas Sandgaard in late September.

By that stage the League One salary cap had been voted in which limited the club’s wagebill. The PFA successfully challenged the spending restrictions this week and it has been scrapped.

Bowyer said: “Of course we want to finish as high as we can. But what I would say is that if you look at Wigan – who came down like us and lost most of their better players – have a look where they are and then have a look where we are.

“I think we are over-achieving, right now. So if we don’t make the play-offs then obviously that’s a discussion that the chairman, the owner Thomas, I’m sure we will have.

“But I believe that me and my staff – and the players we have got together now – we will give ourselves every opportunity and we will fight for every point.

“It’s a good question but if people think we lost 12 players, were under an embargo and weren’t allowed to sign anybody – and everyone else had four, five or six weeks headstart on us – then we had the cap come in…if any other team had what we had to deal with then I’d love to see where they would be sitting now.

“We’re overachieving, trust me.”

INSET PHOTO: PAUL EDWARDS