Bowyer joy at Con trick
IT may be carnival time in Notting Hill – but Lee Bowyer was hosting his own ‘block party’ on the other side of London.
Charlton boss Bowyer could not hide his pride in the way his players put their bodies on the line to pinch victory with their solitary shot on target after 41 minutes.
Jonny Williams robbed Christian Norgaard and played in Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher to finish high over keeper David Raya for his third goal in four games.
And it left Brentford wondering how the hell they lost a game in which they ‘outshot’ their hosts 22-3.
Mind you, Addicks keeper Dillon Phillips only had one serious save to make. The game was 85 minutes old before Mathias Jensen’s 20-yarder stung his palms.
That was down to the heroic defending in front of him, with 10 shots blocked by red-shirted bodies.
Late on Ben Purrington was almost knocked out by a belter he took full in the face from Said Benrahma and skipper Jason Pearce blocked Emiliano Marcondes’ follow-up.
Then in added-time, goalbound efforts from Sergi Canos and Henrik Dalsgaard bounced back off Pearce and his fellow centre-half Tom Lockyer.
Bowyer said: “They were peppering our goal for the last 10 minutes.
“There was never a point I thought we were home, until the ref blew the whistle.
“All the blocks were good. They all kept the ball out of the net. It doesn’t matter if one takes it in the chest, or one in the throat.
“They have got bags of ice all over the place in the dressing room. They keep digging in and throwing their bodies on their line. “For me to watch it, I’m so proud of them because they couldn’t physically give me any more.
“I don’t think that many managers can say, ‘they give me everything, every single one of them’.” Brentford should have been in front after starting well – but Canos missed three decent chances in the opening 20 minutes.
Boss Thomas Frank said: “We did enough by far to come away with three points. I am satisfied with the away performance in terms of dominating and creating chances.
“We gave away one chance – a big one. We needed to react quicker to that situation, but on the other hand offensively you can also see we lacked that top quality on the day.” CHARLTON BRENTFORD 1 ......... Shots on Target .........4 1 ......... Shots off Target .........8 2 ................Corners ............... 14 12 ................. Fouls .................. 10 2 ............... Offsides ................. 2 62.7 ..Passing Success% .. 82.7 263....... Total Passes ........ 566 31.5 ..... Possession% ......68.5 38.7 .. Territorial Adv%.... 61.3