Ben Garner felt his Charlton Athletic side were the architects of their own downfalls in the 3-1 loss to Bolton Wanderers in terms of the goals they conceded but does not think Conor Bradley's strike was a handball.
Scott Fraser put the hosts into the lead early on after capitalising on George Johnston's error. But Conor Bradley struck not long after to put Bolton back on level terms.
The Whites went ahead before the break when Kieran Lee found the net. After half-time, Johnston helped to atone for his earlier error to score Bolton's third.
READ MORE: Bolton Wanderers player ratings vs Charlton Athletic - Thomason great as Lee & Bradley impress
Wanderers also had to call upon James Trafford to contain the visitors, denying Jesurn Rak-Sakyi on a couple of occasions. The win sees Bolton sitting eighth in the table on 11 points.
Garner admits Wanderers are a good side after the work Ian Evatt's side have done in several transfer windows. But he felt Charlton committed several errors in the goals they conceded rather than good ones netted by the Whites.
In terms of the goal Bradley scored to draw Bolton level, there was a suggestion the Liverpool loanee may have committed a handball offence in scoring. But Garner admits he did not think it was and nor did the fourth official.
He said: “They’re a good side. After speaking to Ian at the end of the game, it’s taken them three windows to build this squad and they’ve got a really strong squad now. I think they lost three or four games here last year, but to go one up and then concede in the manner that we did completely changed the dynamic of the game, so certainly points dropped from that perspective after going ahead. We all need to address it and respond in the right way.
“There’s a lot of errors within the goals, there's not just one or two mistakes, there’s three or four in some of them. Tracking runs, doing the basics, working hard in the game, we gave the ball away needlessly for one of the goals and then we’ve switched off from a set piece that we knew was coming.
“A lot was wrong and they’re not great goals that have been scored against us - it was our problems that gave them the goals and that’s something that we haven’t had this season. We’ve been pretty solid and we’ve looked good, I think we haven’t conceded more than one goal since Accrington away but that today wasn’t the levels that it should be and it’s my responsibility to make sure that it is next week.
“I haven’t seen it (Bradley goal) back. Whether it was handball or not, I don’t know. I don’t think it was, the fourth official said it wasn’t, so I don’t know. I think there was a foul on Charles in the build-up to the first goal. I haven’t seen it back but it looked like he came through the back of Charles to win the ball, but we should still recover and do better than what we did, so there’s no excuses on our part today. The better side won and we have to roll our sleeves up and come fighting.”
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