Red-carded Bowyer: I left the technical area and threw the ball back to them and that was a red card

Charlton Athletic marked their 100 years of football at The Valley with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Birmingham City in a game where Charlton manager Bowyer was sent off.

Bowyer was red carded in the early stages of a six minute stoppage time after he threw a ball towards the Birmingham dugout.

Bowyer explained: “Someone from their staff (Birmingham) threw a ball on to the pitch to try and waste time or whatever, which I’ve never seen before.”

“Great! Just grab a ball from somewhere and throw it on to the pitch and then the ball somehow ended up next to me.”

“I picked the ball up and I was walking towards their bench shouting down to them ‘Is this your ball’ and they said ‘yes’ so I threw the ball back.”

“He (referee Matt Donohue) said because I left the technical area and threw the ball back to them that that was a red card. I’ve never heard that rule in my life. I get you’re not allowed to leave the technical area but if they didn’t throw the ball on the pitch in the first place then I wouldn’t have had to throw the ball back to them.”

“I can’t see how that’s a straight red. He’s saying I threw the ball back aggressively but they are 20 yards away. It’s not like a tennis ball. It’s a big ball. The fourth official wasn’t even watching, he was dealing with something else on the pitch. I was thinking ‘Who told you I threw it back aggressively?’ I just threw the ball back to them.”

Charlton’s loss marked their first defeat on their return to the championship and the end of their unbeaten league run. They were also missing joint championship top scorer Lyle Taylor who picked up an injury during the international break.

Bowyer said: “Lyle’s not good. He’ll be out for a period of time and I don’t know how long but he’ll be out for a bit now. He’s done something to his knee, I was hoping it wasn’t going to be too bad but he’s had a scan and it’s not good.”

“It’s the first game this season we haven’t scored. We’re going to miss him, twenty odd goals and double figure assists. Whenever the balls in the final third I feel we’ve got to try and score of create good chances.”

Charlton will hope for a better result when they take on Wigan Athletic in their next league game on Saturday, September 21.