Lee Bowyer was very pleased to complete an unbeaten pre-season and equally importantly come through the team’s final friendly without anyone to add to the injury list.
A goal from Jake Forster-Caskey gave Charlton a 1-0 win against Championship outfit Norwich City at The Valley today.
The highlights of the game are now available.
Here are a few key points from his post-game interviews.
On the 1-0 win against Norwich…
"I’m delighted. It’s been tough as we’ve lost some vital players the last couple of week so to come through the last couple of games, Brighton and today is good. A clean sheet is good going into the opening week of the season. There were again a lot of positives from the game."
On if he knows his starting lineup for Sunderland…
"It depends on who is fit. I know certain players I can’t use because of fitness but I’ve got a very good idea. A lot of it will depend on what I see from Sunderland. I’ll try and look at stuff from them during the week and then that might make the odd decision different to what I might be thinking now. Getting through today with no more injuries is another good thing. We didn’t lose a game pre-season, a clean sheet today. It’s been a better last 24 hours."
On if Lyle Taylor will be fit to play next week following news of a calf injury...
"It’s something we won’t know until definitely after the weekend. We’ll see what happens on the treatment he gets over the weekend. If everything goes well there, we’ll look to get him into training at some stage during the week. It is doesn’t then we won’t. We won’t be taking any risks with anyone. We’d be silly to, especially with the amount of injuries we’ve got to players already. So we won’t be taking no risks. I won’t be rushing him because it’s a long season."
On the benefit of an unbeaten pre-season…
"I think it’s a good habit to get into. Now we’ve just beaten Norwich, who beat us twice comfortably last season. I know it’s a pre-season game but I felt we were the better team especially first half, second half we dropped a bit deeper. We’ll be turning up to Sunderland on the back of this result having just beaten a Championship side so we’ll be turning up next weekend ready."
On Dillon Phillips who made three crucial late saves to keep a clean sheet…
"He’s young and he hasn’t got much experience Dill. He made great saves. I think he brought pressure on himself really but he will have learnt from that, so the most important thing for me was the saves not how good he was with his feet. He’s there to make saves not to be a centre half or a midfielder. That’s not his job. His job is to keep the ball out of the net and he did that today."
On what he has learnt from pre-season…
"I’ve learnt I’ve got a good set of players that are hungry and it’s been good for me to see them come together. We went to Portugal and you could see each day they were coming together more and more. For me it’s been a good pre-season and I’ve enjoyed it, especially to see them all come together."
On his players giving 100 per cent...
"You give me 100 per cent that’s all I ask and they did that today and they did that Tuesday (against Brighton). Because if you don’t give 100 per cent then you don’t play, it’s as simple as that. They all know that, so that’s why you always see them do that."