Lee Bowyer sensationally complained about the ‘negative’ Charlton fans after supporters returned to The Valley for the first time in nine months.
It’s been a day of excitement for football fans across the country, with supporters due to return to matches over the coming days following the end of the second nationwide lockdown.
But it didn’t go to plan in south-east London, where 2,000 fans were able to purchase tickets for Charlton’s League One clash against MK Dons, which ended in a dismal 1-0 defeat for the hosts.
After the game, Bowyer admitted the visitors looked ‘much sharper’ than his team.
But he was not impressed with the returning supporters, who he urged to be ‘more positive’, as he complained about the audible moans and groans coming from the socially-distanced Addicks faithful.
After Scott Fraser’s second-half goal sealed the points for the Dons, Bowyer said: “I’m pleased to see them back in… but I would have liked it to have been a bit more positive from the fans.
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“They’ve been away so long, I’d rather they get behind the team and try and get them going. Because they played a hard game on Saturday against Ipswich and when we play at home we need those fans to be positive and pick the lads up when it’s not going so well.
“That’s what I’d rather have happened tonight. But I’m glad they are back in – because we’ve missed them. I just wish they were a little more vocal tonight, in helping the lads.
“Even though it was 2,000 I expected non-stop singing, supporting the players and pushing them. But it wasn’t like that.
“It was very, very quiet apart from some negative shouting – and I didn’t expect that tonight.
“Listen, the players didn’t really do too much to get people on their feet – but sometimes they need a bit of help, and that’s what our fans are great at.
“It wasn’t what I expected, because we don’t stop singing normally. And there wasn’t much singing at all, from start to finish, tonight.”
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You could admire the manager’s honesty, given the situation, but for many supporters the coach’s comments just took the biscuit.
COVID guidelines meant many fans turned up to the Valley TWO HOURS before kick-off to take their seats in the largely empty stadium.
And one fuming Charlton supporter told talkSPORT he didn’t even stick around for the final whistle – despite it being his first game back since March!
You can’t make this up.
Speaking on The Sports Bar, Sam the Addicks fan said: “Before the game everyone was buzzing to get in there, but from the first minute it was such a negative game of football… it was so bad.
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“Bowyer shouldn’t have come out and said that. The players shouldn’t need the fans to get them hyped up for the fact we were returning.
“It was like they’d never played football together, and I don’t know why because in the last nine games we’ve played so well.
“They got booed off at full time, but I left just before.
“On the way to the game I was thinking, no one should leave before the final whistle, but hundreds of people left early tonight.
“It was the worst performance I’d seen in ten years.”
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