Charlton boss Lee Bowyer: We had a chance of staying up and we never grabbed it

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Boardroom chaos has hamstrung Charlton all season – but Lee Bowyer still felt the Addicks had enough on the footballing side to beat the drop.

Defeat at Elland Road on Wednesday evening, coupled with results elsewhere, saw the South Londoners return to League One just a year after the play-off final win over Sunderland.

Barnsley’s late winner at Brentford on the final day meant they leapfrogged Charlton – the Addicks relegated by a solitary point at the end of the campaign.

Bowyer said: “I’m hurting because I just don’t like losing games and the way we’ve been relegated hurts me more. We should have won more games, we should have had enough points to keep us in the division easily. That’s what hurts me.

“Today, they were far on a different level to us. There was no comparison between the two teams today. That’s why they’re going up. But in the other games, that hasn’t been the case. That’s what hurts me most – it was in our hands but we didn’t grab it.

“Even with all the other crazy stuff that’s been going on – at times I’ve felt this job has been impossible – even with all that, we still had a chance of staying in the division and we never grabbed it. That’s what hurts.

“Not happy. We’ve been relegated and I just said to the players, it ain’t because of tonight’s game. Since coming back from lockdown we’ve been the better side in most of the games. That’s what has cost us. We should have been safe before we even came here tonight, but we wasn’t. I’m disappointed, getting relegated is never a nice thing to happen. I’m not in a good place at the moment.”