Charlton Athletic boss explains his call on benching Jonny Williams against Birmingham City

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Charlton boss Lee Bowyer has explained why he took Jonny Williams out of his starting line-up for last weekend’s match against Birmingham City.

The former Crystal Palace attacker has been one of the Addicks’ most in-form performers since promotion to the Championship.

But Bowyer plumped for Erhun Oztumer to start in the 1-0 home loss to the Blues.

The Charlton manager said: “Jonny has had a lot of injuries in the last couple of years. I pulled him on Friday and said: ‘You’ve done nothing wrong, you’re in a good place now – I have to look after you. I can’t take the risk.’ He had just played 90 minutes [for Wales]. He hasn’t played 90 minutes in how many years.

“If he broke down then I’d have been kicking myself. I’ve got to look at the bigger picture.

“Jonny has come in and made an impact. Sometimes players come off the bench and do that – it happened at Reading. Jonny was fine about it. He understands and he trusts what I’m trying to do with him and the team.

“I didn’t think Erhun was going to weaken us. That’s his strength – unlocking teams. But it just didn’t work out for Erhun as well as I hoped it would. It was just one of them days for us. If we were still out there now I don’t think we’d have scored.

“You are going to have them days. That’s what I’ve been saying, everyone can’t get carried away. This league is relentless. Birmingham are a good side and Wigan is going to be the same.

“We dust ourselves off. There were a lot of positives from the Saturday – we created chances and defended well against a side who are direct. We defended our box well.”

INSET PICTURE: PAUL EDWARDS