Lee Bowyer was disappointed to see his Charlton side threw away a two-goal lead against Cardiff City – but believes a point was a “fair” result.

First half goals from England youth internationals Conor Gallagher and Jonathan Leko put them two up heading into the break following a dominant display.

But Nathaniel Mendez-Laing pulled one back seven minutes into the restart before Lee Tomlin came off the bench to complete the turnaround.

Asked for his thoughts on the game, Bowyer said: “Disappointing. I think I’d have to start with that, because to be two up at half-time and end up coming away with a point is disappointing.

“But, on the positive side, we’ve played against a good Cardiff team who was in the Premier League this time last year and I felt that we were better than them for large parts of the game.

“I think they started better [in the] first 10 minutes but then after that, once we scored, then I felt like we controlled the game for the rest of the first half.

“I think we settled into it and moved the ball well. We had to be patient, and we were. I think we opened them up a few times in the first half.

“But I think were so much better than them [in the] first half. They had to change their shape and match us up, so if we weren’t then they wouldn’t have had to change their shape. We were obviously causing them a lot of problems.”

The second 45 minutes were more end-to-end, with Charlton repeatedly springing counter-attacks against Cardiff in search for their third.

Gallagher and Leko both went close to grabbing their brace, but there were also chances for Erhun Oztumer and Macauley Bonne.

Bowyer believes a more ruthless and efficient performance in the second half would have seen Charlton “comfortably” come away with all three points.

He added: “Second half, again, I thought we were good. It was a bit more end-to-end, second half. They had chances, we had chances.

“Thought the penalty was soft, it was just two players [Ben Purrington and Callum Paterson] pulling each other. Thankfully Dillon [Phillips] saved it but yeah, I think that was the least we deserved today. [We deserved] a point.

“If we’d have taken care in the second half and been a bit more ruthless then we’d have won the game comfortably. We broke three-versus-two at times against them.

“They made some good blocks and so did we. A point, probably I’d say, might be fair. Even. But I’m disappointed with that [result].”