Charlton boss Lee Bowyer pleased with point at Bristol Rovers – but felt an incorrect offside denied him all three

Lee Bowyer was pleased to come away with a point in difficult conditions at Bristol Rovers, but felt an incorrect offside flag denied him all three.

Charlton had to settle for a goalless draw in extremely blustery conditions at the Memorial Ground but both sides did have the ball in the net at one point only to be denied by the referee’s assistant.

“Our one was onside,” Bowyer said of Josh Cullen’s tap-in from a Lyle Taylor cross just before half-time.

“I’ve not looked at their one, there’s no point. But our one was onside. I said to fourth official at half-time walking off that it’s onside but again it’s a big decision that’s not gone our way.

“Obviously, we go into every game wanting to win and we’re leaving disappointed because we haven’t one. The conditions were so difficult. This is quite an open ground and the wind was unbelievable on another day we could have won it but we come away with a good point really. They’ve been doing well recently, winning three on the spin, so it’s not a bad point.”

Bowyer made a total of five changes after a gruelling week culminated with a third game in eight days against the Gas.

Jason Pearce was one of the returnees, making his first appearance since being injured away to Barnsley in December. He replaced the in-form Naby Sarr in the heart of the defence – but Bowyer said none of his changes were anything other than tactical.

“I freshened it up and try to prevent what did happen today,” he explained.

“I knew it was going to be horrible conditions and a tough physical game so I freshened it up the best I could and to be fair we kept a side that’s been doing well quiet today. Everyone that came in did their jobs but we’re a little bit flat now because obviously we wanted the three points.

“It was nothing against any of them, all the players that came out. It was just purely best for the team. It was tough, Saturday, “Tuesday, a lot of them were tired ion Tuesday, you could tell just by watching the game. To ask them to do it again maybe would have been too much of a gamble. It wasn’t just Naby, all the lads have been doing great.”

The Addicks now have a fortnight break as next weekend’s trip to Wycombe has been postponed due to international call-ups.

“This will be good,” admitted the Charlton boss.

“I just said to them ‘go and enjoy your break, you’ve earned it.’ And when we come back in at the end of the week, next week, we’ll get ourselves going and ready for Bradford.”