Bowyer on hitting the 100 point mark, Gillingham, the upcoming play-offs, injuries and his contract talks.

Lee Bowyer spoke to the local press ahead of Saturday’s game against Gillingham this morning.

The full press conference will be available on Valley Pass this afternoon. Valley Pass costs just £6.50 per month. 

Below are some of this mornings talking points. 

On being the fastest Charlton manager to reach 100 points...

"I’m happy. It’s good, all these things that we’ve been achieving this season are rewarding and it all comes from this attitude of getting us where we want to get to, and that’s promotion. But it’s not just me. It’s my whole team, the coaches and Steve Gallen, who’s in charge of recruitment, the players who step out on to the pitch every week, the fans that get behind the players… Everyone has a part to play in the club. 

"Yes, I have to make the decisions regarding who plays and when and where, but I think as a collective thing it’s very good.

"I’m happy but I want to do better, and we could have had more points but that’s just me being the way that I am. I just want to win every game. But I’m over the moon with it. I’ve done that and it’s an achievement for myself as well."

On Gillingham and the upcoming play-off battles…

"We’ve got to win five games. We’ll have five games hopefully and we have to win them all. And if we win them all then we go up. It’s as simple as that, that’s how simple football is. Whoever we play is going to be tough. 

"Saturday is going to be tough, Gillingham is a tough place to go, they’ve got players that can hurt you. I see that Regan Charles-Cook and Brandon Hanlan scored against Plymouth, two of our old players, so they’re going to be wanting to prove a point so it’s going to be a tough game. Every game from now is going to be tough. 

"I watched Gillingham against Plymouth and I watched them against us when we played them. Obviously, we won so it was good to see how we can hurt them. The big fella up front (Tom Eaves), he’s scored a lot of goals. But, and this is not being disrespectful to anybody, if we do the right things and we compete then we have players that can also hurt them. 

"That’s the same for everyone we play, I believe we can win every game. I think the games that we have won recently show that. Look at Luton they hadn’t been beaten in how long? And we were by far better than them so we when we turn up and we do things properly we’re a tough side to play."

On injuries… 

"We’ve got a few injury worries. We’ve got Patrick Bauer who’s got a bit of a sore knee. He took a bit of a knock on Saturday. Krystian (Bielik) with his shoulder. Lyle Taylor’s come in and his groin’s tight and Johnny Williams has a sore knee, again he’s took a knock.

"(Lewis Page) and Jake Forster-Caskey are fine. There’s a game here today behind closed doors that they’re going to be playing in, so we’ll get some more minutes into them two. We have got some knocks but it’s just going to be a case of looking at the bigger picture for me.

"I’ll have a discussion with them this morning and then I’ll take matters into my own hands. Because they’ll want to play in all of the games, but I won’t be silly. If it’s going to affect something in the long run, then they won’t be playing."

On his own contract negotiations…

"I’ve not heard back since the last time so there’s nothing to report. 

"It is what it is. I can’t control it. I think everybody knows me now, if it’s something I can’t control then it doesn’t really affect me that much because there’s no point worrying about it. Like I said I’m sure that he will come back to me with something and then we’ll go from there." 

The full press conference will be available on Valley Pass this afternoon. Valley Pass costs just £6.50 per month.

Read Time: 4 mins