Charlton boss Lee Bowyer: Lyle Taylor played through the pain

Posted Sunday, December 16, 2018 by PA

Charlton boss Lee Bowyer revealed Lyle Taylor played through the pain barrier to help sink his former club AFC Wimbledon in what turned out to be a controversial south London derby.

The Addicks were a man down after just 56 seconds when Naby Sarr saw red for a late challenge on Tennai Watson.

Wimbledon’s numerical advantage proved short-lived after Mitch Pinnock picked up two yellows – the second for a 33rd-minute dive while on the attack.

Taylor finally broke the deadlock on the hour against the club he left in the summer, with substitute Mark Marshall adding a decisive second four minutes from time.

And manager Bowyer pointed out Taylor could easily have missed out on selection had the striker not gone the extra mile to make the starting XI.

The Valley chief explained: “He looked 100 per cent but he certainly wasn’t. He had a fitness test this morning (Saturday) and failed it at the training ground.

“He couldn’t pass the ball 10 yards without his toe killing him so then the only option was to have an injection in his toe.

“That is Lyle. He has played on through pain before already this season and I said to him ‘There is no pressure, if you can’t then I’m not going to make you play’.

“Obviously we will miss him if he doesn’t and he knows what is at stake here – we are all trying to push for promotion.

“So he said ‘I’ll have the injection, I’ll warm-up and see if I can get through that. Then I will play’.

“That is what he did, he took it step-by-step really and thankfully he did play because he played well, was a threat all game and obviously scored.”

Bowyer admitted he was not sure if Sarr deserved his marching orders or not but added the decision didn’t impact his confidence on Charlton’s chances.

He said: “It was on the opposite side to where I was standing. I’ve not seen it again but my initial feeling is Naby is an honest lad and has tried to win the ball but mistimed it.

“I still felt comfortable even when he was walking off that we would still win this.”

Dons manager Wally Downes, however, felt the final score flattered the hosts somewhat.

He said: “I thought we were unfortunate for it to be 2-0 because at 1-0 we were back in the game and thought we were pressing on.

“The substitutions we made made a bit of a difference in the second half and we were unfortunate not to get an equaliser.

“It stung a little bit to get done at the end because we worked so hard and it could have been closer.”

Downes demanded an explanation from the officials on Pinnock’s dismissal, believing his player was the victim of a challenge from Patrick Bauer while on a dangerous attack rather than being a dive.

The Dons boss added: “It clearly was a foul and the referee has made a mistake.

“I said to him and the linesman ‘Why did you send him off?’ and he said ‘I thought he dived’. He is very close to the incident and saw it and has got it wrong.

“I thought we were always comfortable in the first half. They didn’t cause us any real problems and we knew how they were going to play.

“If Mitch doesn’t get sent off we would have got stronger in the game and the outcome would have been different.”