Nathan Jones praised his side’s “truly wonderful” performance as they came away from promotion-chasing Middlesbrough with a 1-0 victory on Wednesday evening.
Conor Coady’s second-half strike proved to be the difference as the Addicks put in a brilliant defensive display to secure a second consecutive clean sheet and single-goal success, and the Charlton boss was beaming with pride at the Riverside Stadium.
“In terms of a team giving me absolutely everything, defending the box and putting their bodies on the line, it was truly wonderful,” said Jones.
“I was at their game against QPR on Sunday and they had a swagger about them, so for us to come here and keep a clean sheet away from home and to score is a wonderful, wonderful performance.
“[Middlesbrough] are a wonderful side, they’re confident in what they do - will we get close to them? In time, of course. But right now, every point is a dream.”
The winning goal came from Harry Clarke’s long throw into the box, which was diverting into the back of the net by Coady and it was the second consecutive game that the Addicks have found success via a long throw after Sonny Carey hurled the ball in for Charlie Kelman’s winner against Birmingham City on Saturday.
“We’ll take any goal that we can!” explained Jones.
“We felt tonight that counter-attacks and set plays would be our best chance, so we knew we had to be good from them.
“We had a glorious chance in the first half on the counter-attack and then we scored from a set play. You know you’ve got to defend superbly well and get a bit of luck as well to keep a clean sheet with the players they have - we had a bit of both tonight. Some real diligence but also a bit of luck and we take the three points and move on.”
Jones made five changes to his side for the trip to Teesside, with one eye on Saturday’s trip to Oxford United coming hot on the heels of the long trip north.
“We have to use the squad,” he said.
“The front two gave us massive distances, so we knew we needed to change those, so having four strikers is key.
“Secondly, Lloyd [Jones] was on nine bookings, Kayne [Ramsay] had a hamstring complaint and hasn’t trained all week since Saturday, so he was touch and go.
“And then we thought that if we change two, we should change three to give them the best chance to be fully fit and free of bookings for the weekend.
“Amari’i has done big distances and has picked up injuries when we’ve overloaded him. With the three we went with, Keenan was the gamble in that because he’s young and hasn’t played many games, but he performed superbly and then we replaced Lloydy with Conor Coady and Belly [Amari’i Bell] with Macca [Macaulay Gillesphey] which doesn’t weaken us, it’s just different.”
With nine games to go, Jones insisted that he’s very much looking up as he looks to secure as a high a finish as he can and for his side to not just survive, but thrive.
“We never take anything for granted, we want to finish as high as we can,” he said.
“We’ve got nine games to go - if we pick up the points per game that we have this season, we should finish in a healthy position.
“Our goal is not to just survive. We haven’t come into this league just to survive, we’ve come into this league to finish as high as we can so we can build.
“We have a timeframe for what we want to do and we’re bang on that. This year, yes, the first priority is to make sure we’re in the league, but we want to finish as high as we can.”
Meanwhile, Jones reserved praise for the travelling Addicks supporters whose dedication for making the 500-mile was rewarded.
“They need their heads tested travelling up here on a Wednesday night!” joked Jones.
“They were absolutely wonderful. I’m proud of the club and I’m proud of them. To follow us up here, I don’t think you can get any further north in this league, and to do it on a Wednesday with the games coming up is truly remarkable.
“Do I expect it from them? Yes, I do now because that’s the group of supporters we have.”
