Bowyer fined £1,000 after his rant at referee and Peterborough United manager

Charlton manager Lee Bowyer has been fined £1,000 for remarks he made after his side's controversial defeat by Posh earlier this month.
Charlton boss Lee Bowyer.Charlton boss Lee Bowyer.
Charlton boss Lee Bowyer.

The Addicks manager admitted a misconduct charge after branding referee James Linington a ‘disgrace’ and accusing Posh chief Steve Evans of bullying officials.

Bowyer was absolutely fuming after his side were beaten 1-0 by a late penalty at The Valley on August 21.

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He claimed his side had been “cheated”, called for referee James Linington to be banned, and described opposite number Steve Evans as a “big geezer” who had “bullied” the officials.

Here’s his rant, courtesy of the South London Press:

“We were the better team. I know that they did everything I asked. They competed, they left everything out there and I know that they’ve been cheated.

“There is no denying it. Everybody in the stadium saw it. It wasn’t a penalty, has never been a penalty. Now he is sitting in his little room over there and thinks it’s acceptable to make a decision and then he’ll go home and he’ll sleep alright. But I know I won’t, my players won’t and most of my fans won’t.

“Is it acceptable? No. Am I probably going to get into trouble? Yeah. But should he get in trouble? Yeah. He shouldn’t be reffing. He shouldn’t be able to ref the next game. He just made a decision there and said the fella got pushed. The fella tried to dive to head the ball. There was no push – they were side by side.

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“Is there contact? Course there is. You’ve got two players running at 100 miles an hour, one trying to defend and one trying to score. There is going to be a contact. But is it a penalty? No. Anyone who has played the game knows it’s not a penalty. That’s my thoughts. It’s an absolute disgrace how he can make that decision.

“A disgrace. And if I’m getting in trouble, he should get in trouble. It’s as simple as that because he’s just robbed us of a point, maybe three.

“We were the team on top and going to score – not them.

“I’ve played the game so long, since I was a kid. And then you’ve got someone making that decision at that time of the game when it’s wrong. Everyone can see it. But all night long the slight 50-50s were going to them, going to them.

“I don’t know whether their manager because he is this big geezer standing on the side and bullying the fourth official – constantly hammering the fourth official – maybe he’s afraid, I don’t know. Maybe he has been bullied into that because every slight decision went to them. Every single one.

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“We had Lyle Taylor getting across the near post and their defender marked him and there was contact and he gave us a corner. Is it similar? Yeah. Is it a penalty? No. But neither was their one. All I ask is for them to be fair. But they can’t – because they don’t understand the game. He don’t understand the game. He’s not played the game, he don’t understand the game.

“Is that his fault? No. I’m not saying his job is easy. But you can’t just guess and gamble when you have got 22 players out there putting their bodies on the line. You can’t just gamble, you can’t. It’s wrong.”