27 February 2021

Lee Bowyer furious with ‘horrendous’ dive as Charlton are thrashed by Blackpool

27 February 2021

Lee Bowyer fumed over an apparent dive by Blackpool striker Jerry Yates to win a penalty in the Tangerines’ 3-0 win over Charlton in Sky Bet League One.

The Addicks were far from their best as a pair of Yates penalties and a strike from Matty Virtue continued their dreadful recent record at home, but it was Yates’ fall to the ground under minimal pressure from Ben Watson for the third goal that annoyed Bowyer the most.

He said: “Have you seen the second penalty they’ve got? It’s unreal. The worst decision I’ve seen in my life. The fella just dived on the floor.

“That was horrendous. We’ll get an apology, but it doesn’t help me and the team. We have to improve, plain and simple.”

Charlton also had two men sent off in the second half – skipper Darren Pratley and striker Chuks Aneke. Bowyer is expecting the latter to be overturned.

“I like to think they’ll watch it back and change their opinion on Aneke,” Bowyer said. “I think a lot of the officials’ decisions today were guesswork.”

On the performance overall, he continued: “I think the players are feeling sorry for themselves. They look nervous. I don’t know why. They have to be confident and express themselves.

“You have to look at why is there people who are constantly at fault for goals? That’s what happened again today.

“I know I haven’t become a bad manager. I’m telling the players the right thing every day. Did I just become bad in the last three months? Come on, be realistic.”

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley, meanwhile, was delighted with the way his team played to keep their strong run of form going.

“We were excellent,” Critchley said. “We scored three goals, got the three points and we kept a clean sheet to boot.

“The win keeps our little run going and it also keeps that momentum building.

“You could have thought that the performance may have petered out at the end, with us three goals to the good and Charlton down to nine men, but they didn’t stop.

“Maybe we could have kept the ball a little bit better when we were against 10 men and made use of the ball a bit more and created more chances, but we’d have taken that before the start of the game, scoring three goals and keeping a clean sheet.

“We knew they weren’t having a great time at the moment, they’re struggling for confidence and form, and we wanted to play on that a little. And we did, we were in the ascendency.”

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