Lee Bowyer picked up a bizarre red card on Saturday when he retrieved a ball from the pitch and appeared to aim it at the Birmingham dug out.
It had been a frustrating afternoon for the Addicks, and the Birmingham bench appeared to throw the ball on to disrupt Charlton’s momentum as they pushed for a late equaliser.
Here is how Bowyer saw the incident:
“They threw a ball on the pitch to try and waste time and I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. All game they were just wasting time – especially when they went 1-0 up, and then it was just thing after thing.
“They throw a ball onto the pitch and then I said to their staff ‘is this your ball?’ They said ‘yeah’, so I threw it back to them and then he sends me off and they’re the ones that have thrown the ball on. It’s crazy.
To me it just seems like they’re making up their own rules as they’re going along and it’s frightening.”
The Addicks were without the injured Lyle Taylor, and Jonny Williams started on the bench – probably because he was involved with Wales in the week.
The duo are massive influences on the team and were sorely missed – the side was much improved when Williams was introduced in the second-half.
Bowyer was not optimistic about Taylor being able to make a speedy return. Tomer Hemed was off the pace and the manager may have to think of different options, maybe giving Chuks Aneke a try up front.
Bowyer continued:
”I thought Tomer did okay, you can tell he’s a bit off it fitness-wise. That’s just natural. He hasn’t played many minutes from pre-season up to now.
“I thought he did okay, he worked hard. Some things came off for him, some didn’t but he’ll get up to speed, I have no doubt in that.
“Lyle’s not good. It’s worse than what we first thought it was going to be so he’s going to miss a period now, so we’ll have to adapt.
“We’ve got a good squad. Obviously it’s disappointing for us but that’s the game unfortunately.
“I’m not going to chuck any figures out there because we don’t know for sure yet. We know that he isn’t going to be back in the next few weeks so he’s going to miss a run of games.
“We won’t know how many until he starts getting treatment and starts trying to make himself better but we’re going to miss him for sure.”Taylor could be out for months, so it is a worrying situation. One piece of good news was Beram Kayal’s brief cameo appearance. He will add to Bowyer’s creative options.
Conor Gallagher continues to impress, he already looks a star in the making.