Charlton slumped to ‎a 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough on Saturday – their eighth game without a win.

The Addicks turned in arguably their poorest performance since Lee Bowyer took charge.

It was not until the final few minutes that they put Boro under a sustained period of pressure. 

Jonathan Woodgate’s team – also in the middle of a bad run – did little to impress either.

George Savile stroked in the only goal of the game after just. 52 seconds. It proved to be all that was needed to win a poor game‎.

Bowyer was disappointed by his team’s performance, and said this after the match:

“It wasn’t good enough. From start to finish they were better than us.

“Defensively I thought we weren’t physical enough. I thought their two strikers run us ragged at times.

“Too many crosses came into the box and we just didn’t have that fight. It wasn’t just one or two [of the players] it was the whole lot.

“I think you just have to just try and move on quickly. If there’s one thing I’ve been able to say after every game is that we competed and we fought and we gave everything, but today we fell short there. we fell short on the physical side of the game and normally that is a good plus for us.

“We’ll be in tomorrow and we’ll go through things and get it right for Tuesday. The only the positive from today is that Lyle [Taylor] came on and played 45 minutes. that’s the only positive for me, apart from that it was a bad day.

The only bright spot for Bowyer was the return of Lyle Taylor, who came on at half-time for his first appearance since August:

“We just need some of them bodies to come back and today Lyle came back.  Okay, he was a little bit off it but you can see what we missed!

“He fights and competes for every ball and puts dangerous balls in the box. 

“To be fair the ball that he hit got a good block from the defender otherwise that would have ended up in the back of the net. but the most important thing is that he’s back and has got 45 minutes in him and we’ll try and do the same on Tuesday.”Charlton: Phillips; Matthews, Oshilaja, Pearce, Purrington (Morgan 45); Ledley (Taylor 45), Pratley, Gallagher, Doughty; Leko, Bonne.

Subs (not used): Maynard-Brewer, Solly, Sarr, Vennings, Davison.‎

Booked: Gallagher 53 (foul), Pratley 59 (foul), Leko 65 (foul)‎.‎

Middlesbrough: Pears; Howson, Ayala , Fry, Spence; Saville, ‎Clayton, Tavernier, Coulson; Assombalonga (Walker 63), Fletcher.

‎Subs (not used): Mejias, Wood, Bola, Malley, O’Neill, Liddle. ‎

Goal: ‎Saville 1,‎

Booked: ‎Fletcher (foul).

Referee: Stephen Martin. ‎Attendance: 18,681.