“Unreal” – Lee Bowyer has praise for Charlton Athletic defender’s display in victory at Portsmouth

Lee Bowyer has described Chris Gunter’s display at Portsmouth as “unreal” – with the defender providing a solution to Charlton’s dearth of centre-back options.

The Addicks were without Ryan Inniss (supended), Deji Oshilaja (foot) and Jason Pearce (calf) for Saturday’s 2-0 win on the South Coast.

Charlton have gone more than nine hours without conceding as they stretched their unbeaten run in League One to six matches – five victories on the spin.

“We’re in a good place,” said Addicks manager Bowyer. “The players are in a good place. We look solid, more than anything.

“We’ve got good, experienced players out there doing really well. Chris Gunter was unreal – I don’t think he’s ever played centre-half, not in a back four.

“We’ve had to bring Adam Matthews in and he did well to get through it. He is really rusty and was tired at the end.

“We had to juggle things around a little bit. Our keeper didn’t have much to do at the weekend. Things are going alright at the moment.”

Ryan Inniss is available for tomorrow’s home fixture against Fleetwood Town after serving a one-match ban along with Ben Watson, who has been booked in all six of his appearances since signing in September.

“Ryan has been really good and he defends the box really well,” said Bowyer. “So I just slid him [Gunter] across one because we didn’t have anyone else.

“I could’ve played Prats [Darren Pratley] there but we’d have lost some physicality in the middle of the park because Ben was out.

“Chris Gunter is an experienced player. He’s been in cruise control at right-back. Adam had to get through one game, then Ryan and Ben come back. I’ve got different options.”

PHOTO: PAUL EDWARDS