Lee Bowyer admits Charlton have no chance to overtake Portsmouth, Sunderland and Barnsley now

The Charlton boss saw his team beaten by Oxford on Good Friday, while all three teams immediately above them won.

Bowyer had constantly backed his team to get automatic promotion throughout the season even when they were adrift of their rivals.

But now with a four-point gap to fourth-placed Pompey and form that can’t match Kenny Jackett’s team Bowyer has accepted it will be play-offs for his team.

He said: ‘It [the top two] is done. That’s done, unless they (Barnsley, Sunderland and Pompey) all go and lose, but that’s not going to happen. That’s it.

‘We needed to win all four (remaining games), that’s not going to happen so it’s done.’

The Addicks started brightly, opening the scoring in the fifth minute when Lyle Taylor scored from the penalty spot after Joe Aribo had been brought down in the box.

Oxford responded 13 minutes later when Curtis Nelson produced a spectacular left-footed volley at the back post to make it 1-1.

Oxford turned the game on its head in the 23rd minute as Luke Garbutt struck a superb 25-yard free-kick over the wall to leave goalkeeper Dillon Phillips grasping thin air.

Bowyer added: ‘On another day I think we score five or six goals. I don't know how we haven't scored in that second-half.

‘First half we created chances and got into good areas, so many times.

“I’ve just said to them “you’ve got to learn from that because we can’t keep getting into those good areas and not having the end product”.

‘That’s cost us, switching off on set-pieces.’