Nathan Jones reflected on an “outstanding” week as the Addicks secured a seventh point from three games with a 1-1 draw at Oxford United on Saturday afternoon.
Charlie Kelman’s injury-time penalty cancelled out Cameron Brannagan’s earlier spot-kick for the hosts at the Kassam Stadium as Charlton added a point to the six earned from wins over Birmingham City and Middlesbrough over the last seven days.
Speaking following the lunchtime clash, Jones was delighted with the return, if somewhat disappointed with his side’s performance on the day.
“It’s been an outstanding week,” he said.
“Seven points from the week has been truly, truly outstanding.
“Today’s performance was everything I didn’t want. For about 70 minutes, we were a passive, passive, typical bang-average team.
“Then as soon as we played with any tempo and put it on them, turning them, stretching them and going up against them, then we could have scored two or three and we finally got the goal.
“So I’m pleased they got the point, but [the players] have to listen to what we say the game plan is. If we do that, then we win the game today.”
“I’m angry because that should be us done now,” Jones continued.
“We would have 50 points and done. But we have to give them credit, Matt [Bloomfield] has done a brilliant job here. They’ve had 10 points over the last 10 games, but they do what they do - they sit off you, allow you to play and then hit you on the counter, or rely on a really poor refereeing decision which they got today. That’s what they do and we played into it.”
Jones, meanwhile, was disappointed with the awarding of Oxford’s penalty, with Kayne Ramsay adjudged to have fouled Will Lankshear in the box.
“It’s poor,” he said.
“They were having a few free-kicks, the crowd were getting up and appealing for everything and then suddenly a gift arrives and I thought it was Christmas!”
Finally, the Addicks boss revealed that Lyndon Dykes was pulled from the starting lineup during the warm-up after feeling unwell.
“It was illness,” he explained.
“It disrupted us because he’s a really big focal point for us, so it was a tough one.
“But we showed we can still compete. We’ve come away from home, they have won their last two home games they played and we battled for a point, but am I happy with the performance? No.”
The Addicks return to The Valley on Saturday to take on Norwich City. Click here to purchase your tickets now.
