Lee Bowyer feels sorry for Charlton players after Barnsley defeat and questions referee’s decision making

Charlton boss Lee Bowyer felt sorry for his side after they were edged out by Barnsley at Oakwell.

The home side had raced into a two-goal lead inside the opening fifteen minutes, but Ben Reeves halved the deficit with just over a quarter of an hour remaining as the South Londoners looked to mount a comeback.

But the visitors were unable to find an equaliser and were dealt a further blow as full-back Chris Solly was shown a second yellow card in added time.

Barnsley climbed above the Addicks in the League One table, with Bowyer’s side dropping to sixth, still inside the play-off places.

“I feel for them,” admitted the Addicks chief.

“I don’t think we deserve to leave with nothing. The effort that they put in, they deserve something from today. First-half, two great strikes. Unstoppable strikes. That’s all it was. Apart from the goals I think Jed [Steer] maybe made one more save. Other than that, I thought we had a lot of the control of the possession at times. I can’t remember them hurting us.

“Second-half especially, we obviously scored and first half we had some good chances. That final ball at times let us down. I said to them before the game to give me everything and they did that again.

“Second-half I thought we were by far the better side. I thought for large parts of the first-half we were the better side, especially coming towards the end of the first-half. All they’ve done is score two great strikes and I can’t really remember them hurting us other than that.

“We’re down to the bare bones. It’s hard for them. We haven’t got the luxury of rotating two or three or four that others do. We’re just unfortunate at the moment. [Jason] Pearcey has had to come off injured.

“Solly has got a second yellow card. It thought it was harsh. He won the ball. You can’t control where you are going once you’ve won the ball. The ref said he caught him on the follow through. When you’re sliding and you’re asking your players to put everything and give you everything, he slid, he’s won the ball and his momentum has took him into the lad. You can’t stop that. You can’t help that. That’s just part of the game at times. He hasn’t done anything intentionally. You don’t just win the ball and stop when you slide. That doesn’t happen. Now we’ll lose another player for the next game.”

Bowyer also felt that the referee should have got his red card out in the first-half for Ethan Pinnock as the defender fouled Karlan Grant when through on goal.

“Karlan goes through first half and [Pinnock] should be sent off,” said Bowyer, as the Barnsley man escaped with just as booking.

“He’s just taken him out. It’s crazy. I don’t get it. We aren’t getting the big decisions at times and if anything, it is going against us. At the end of the day if it’s a red card, it’s a red card. You can’t just make things up as you go along and unfortunately for us that seems to happen a lot.”