Charlton pre-season friendly against Romanians abandoned amid 'distasteful scenes'

Not all pre-season friendlies are friendly.

Charlton prepared for their return to the Championship by facing Romanian top-flight side Gaz Metan Medias on Thursday in what was intended to be only a 70-minute game.

However, the action didn't even last that long as the match was abandoned after 49 minutes.

George Lapslie had given the Addicks a 1-0 lead in the first half, and just minutes into the second they were awarded a penalty, which sparked what the club's own report called "extremely distasteful scenes".

Medias pair Valentin Cretu and Marius Constantin reportedly man-handled referee Raul Mateo, who showed red cards to both men.

But the double dismissal enraged Medias head coach Edward Iordanescu, whose staff pleaded to be allowed to make substitutions instead of having players dismissed.

When the referee insisted on their departure, Iordanescu withdrew all his players and the game was abandoned.

"It's disappointing and never nice to see. Rightly so, the referee stopped the game," Charlton manager Lee Bowyer said.

"It would have been good if we could have got a game that was a bit longer, but overall I'm happy because we got a bit of a run around.

"Thankfully now, for us, it's better that it's ended this way so we can do a tough double session tomorrow."

The Addicks' next pre-season game is against Welling United on 13 July. Their league campaign begins at Blackburn on 3 August.