Lee Bowyer fumes at his Charlton side’s defending during 5-3 loss at Scunthorpe

Lee Bowyer was fuming with his side’s defending as they fell to a first defeat in seven games with a 5-3 loss at Scunthorpe United.

Charlie Goode had poked the hosts ahead early on, before goals from Lyle Taylor and Joe Aribo turned the contest on its head around the twenty minute mark.

A brace from Cameron Borthwick-Jackson had the Iron back in-front before the interval – with Aribo adding his second of the game to level things up again with twenty minutes left.

But a penalty from Josh Morris, after Jason Pearce was ruled to have handled in the area, coupled with Stephen Humphry’s added-time strike decided the game in the Iron’s favour.

“We’ve given them four goals,” bemoaned Bowyer, as his side dropped to eight in the League One table.

“First-half wasn’t good enough defensively. Every time we went forward we looked like we were going to score first-half, created chance after chance. But overall, it’s not good enough.

 

“We have to come here and win. After watching that, we have to win this game today. I don’t know what happened apart from poor defending. Switching off. Whatever way you want do dress it up, it wasn’t good enough.

“We ain’t been like that before. How many goals did they score from set-plays? You could say it was a good game for the neutral but it was a horrendous game for myself.

“Disappointed. For me, watching that game, this is three points dropped. We’ve got to be winning this game.”

The Addicks boss felt hard-done-by following referee Darren Drysdale’s decision to award Scunny a penalty against Pearce, moments after Aribo had made it 3-3. He was also baffled by the decision not to award Anfernee Dijksteel a spot-kick as the South Londoners chased another equaliser at 4-3.

“It was a yard away [from Jason Pearce],” explained Bowyer.

“He’s running out to block the shot, the fella has chipped it up and it’s hit him on the arm. It was a yard away. It’s crazy. He’s hit it one-hundred mile per hour from a yard away. He’s not done it deliberately. It’s crazy.

“It’s a penalty [on Dijksteel]”, he added.

“He’s took it around him and it’s a foul. For some reason we ain’t getting these decisions. Everything is going against us. I don’t know why. Everyone can watch it and make their mind up. If you know the game, then you know if that’s a penalty for them and a penalty for us. We don’t seem to be getting these decisions at the moment I don’t know why. Maybe we need to start asking the question. At the moment it’s not even. But we didn’t deserve anything from the game with that defending.

“I’ve just said to them you can’t go away and score three goals and not win the game. You can’t. You can’t go away from home and score two goals [at Luton on Saturday] and not win the game. We’ll have to sort that out. At the end of the day it’s not acceptable. Conceding seven in the last two games. Scoring five away from home and not winning – getting one point from scoring five goals away from home. It ain’t good enough.”