Charlton Athletic manager Lee Bowyer has slammed his team's performance after their 3-1 loss at Stoke City in the Championship yesterday.

The Addicks sit just a place above the drop zone after yesterday's defeat, and with four points separating them from 22nd-place Wigan.

After claiming a rare win at home to Barnsley the weekend before, Charlton headed to Stoke City in good hopes of taking some points off their relegation rivals.

But Stoke took an early lead through James McClean, and set themselves on their way to victory. Lyle Taylor pulled one back for Charlton on the stroke of half-time, but the Potters came out firing and regained the lead within two minutes of the restart through Tom Ince.

Nick Powell then put Stoke 3-1 ahead, and condemned Charlton to their fourth-straight away defeat.

Speaking to www.cafc.co.uk after the game, Bowyer was critical of his side's performance at the bet365 Stadium:

“There were too many players that weren’t at it today, that’s the reality. It was nowhere near as good as they can play.

"I said to the players there that we have a squad that have to be at their very best to compete and today we weren’t and that’s why we lost by two goals but we go again.”

Michael O'Neill's Stoke have now won four of their last six in the league, losing just once, and are slowly dragging themselves away from the drop-zone - they leapfrogged Charlton into 20th-place with the win.

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“Stoke should never be where they are in the league, not with the players they’ve got and they showed that today," said Bowyer. "You have to be at your best, you have to do the right things, the basics right and today we didn’t.”

Charlton next travel to Nottingham Forest in midweek.

The verdict

Every game and every point is crucial for Charlton now. They looked to have turned a corner when they beat Barnsley earlier in the month, but yesterday's performance shows there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Bowyer will be hoping that his deadline day signings can kick-on, and that Charlton can do like Stoke and pull themselves away from an immediate return to League One.