Lee Bowyer slams end products of Tariqe Fosu and Mark Marshall after Charlton held to home draw by ten-man Southend United

A frustrated Lee Bowyer singled his wingers Tariqe Fosu and Mark Marshall out for criticism after a 1-1 draw with ten-men Southend United at The Valley.

Stephen Humphrys’ deflected strike had given the Shrimpers a first-half lead, before former Charlton manager Chris Powell’s side were reduced to ten men as Dru Yearwood was shown a straight red card.

Ben Reeves headed the Addicks level early in the second-half but they were unable to find a winner.

“It’s tough to take,” explained Bowyer.

“We got into the final-third so many times but our balls into the box were not good enough. The two wide men, their end product wasn’t good enough.

The keeper made two or three very good saves but we have to do better. It’s so frustrating. We’re close but we can’t keep dropping points like that. It’s two games on the spin now.

“Two points dropped. We were miles better than them. If anything, them getting a man sent-off probably made it harder. First ten to fifteen minutes we were very good. They got a goal from nowhere against the run of play with a deflection.”

With marksman Lyle Taylor serving the final of his three-game suspension and Karlan Grant now at Huddersfield, Bowyer decided to play winger Mark Marshall as a strike-partner to Igor Vetokele in the first-period ahead of new signing Josh Parker.

“Tried it. Didn’t work,” said Bowyer, who had Marshall revert to the wing for the second-period, with Parker coming on up-top.

“I had to try something. At the end of the day we’ve lost 30 goals from our two strikers in the last two games. We’ve got to try something different. I was hoping it would work with Marsh, a bit of pace. Get him one v one. But it didn’t work. So, I put him back out wide. He put a good ball in for the goal but him and Tariqe, their end product wasn’t good enough today.

“Igor, I didn’t know how long he was going to last. He’s not played much football. I had to keep something (Parker) on the bench, a bit of physicality, in case Igor broke down. Otherwise I would have had nothing.

“[Parker] is just getting used to everybody. The way we train, the intensity is very high. To come and just slot in, it’s not easy. He’s looked better this week. It takes time to get used to the players as well. I thought he did well when he came on, I thought he was a threat. He did really well.”

Jonny Williams has been on the receiving end of some heft challenges recently and he was the man fouled by Yearwood in the red card incident.

“He’s a good player” added Bowyer.

“Sometimes, how do you stop a good player? You kick them. That’s the treatment he’s getting at the moment. He’s just got to brush himself off and keep going. It’s not just him. All our players seem to go past someone and just get hacked down. But they get away with it. But that doesn’t make the difference between winning and losing. But we do get fouled a lot.”