Charlton Athletic goalscorer Lyle Taylor needs to be fitter and sharper

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Lee Bowyer has challenged Charlton striker Lyle Taylor to repeat his second half showing for the full 90 minutes – revealing he gave the summer signing extra running in the week.

The Addicks won 3-2 against Wycombe today and Taylor scored his fourth goal of the campaign.

“He had a bad start to the game,” said the Charlton manager. “But the second half Lyle Taylor was the one we signed. I told him that after the game.

“I expect to see a lot more of that now.

“I’ve been doing some work on his fitness. On Tuesday I ran him extra because I think it is the only way we can improve Lyle is to get him fitter. He missed a couple of weeks of pre-season towards the end and was a little bit behind anyway.

“So I did some extra with him on Tuesday, ran him and did some finishing – stuff like that. He looked a bit sharper.

“He was bad at the start because he lost the ball six times out of seven. That’s not a good start. It was not just him – all three of them were poor; Nicky [Ajose] and Karlan [Grant]. I told them it was not good enough.

“We got the right reaction in the second half. That’s the player I signed. Lyle was a threat and the attacking players got into dangerous areas.

“We will keep creating chance and he will keep scoring goals. He scores horrible goals from two yards out. That’s something we didn’t have last year. I couldn’t tell you one player who score a goal like that – inside the six-yard box. Lyle has got about three already. His work-rate second half was exceptional.

“He scored 18 goals last season. No disrespect to Wimbledon but I don’t think they are as good as us. They wouldn’t have created as many chances as we will for him. And he still scored 18 goals. He holds the ball up well and that relieves pressure off your back four.

“But we will keep demanding from him. It is not a 45-minute game – it is 90.”