Charlton Athletic boss: Defensive duo won’t be ready to start Ipswich game

Charlton manager Lee Bowyer says Jason Pearce and Deji Oshilaja are not fit enough to start Saturday’s match at Ipswich Town.

The Addicks have a dearth of centre-back options with Akin Famewo also sidelined.

It has seen Chris Gunter – who has primarily played in his career at right-back – and midfielder Darren Pratley as the preferred option in the middle against Gillingham and Burton.

Gunter’s mistake gifted Lucas Akins a ninth-minute opener in midweek as the Brewers ran out 4-2 winners.

Asked about club captain Pearce or Oshilaja coming into his side at the weekend, Bowyer said: “No chance – because they are not fit enough. It’s plain and simple.

“You need to remember that Pearcey has been out for a long, long time – he was out from pre-season.

“Prats and Gunter didn’t do badly the other night when you take away the first goal. If you take the goals out of the equation – which were freak, freak mistakes – they didn’t do bad.

“That’s not really my worry. If I have to play them two I’m not worried about it because they did well as a partnership.”

Bowyer watched the Burton match back on Wednesday.

“We moved the ball too slowly and we were sloppy in possession,” he said. “I’m not using the pitch as an excuse because it was the same for both teams.

“The first half-hour, in particular, wasn’t good. I didn’t see that result coming and sometimes you need things like that to happen to make everyone come back to reality. We have to work hard for it, you can’t just turn up and expect to win games.

“In the second half we improved but we gave them four goals. The third goal we gave the corner away, we were sloppy with the ball back to the keeper.

“We’ll get a reaction, I’m sure, at Ipswich. It’s a tough game and we have to be ready for that.”