Charlton finished 19th in their first campaign back in the Sky Bet Championship, but while taking pride in the Addicks’ highest league finish in more than a decade, Nathan Jones insisted he is focussed on driving the club forward.
After guaranteeing their place in the Championship at The Valley last weekend, the Addicks lost 3-1 at Swansea City on the final day of the season.
Speaking after the game, Jones said: “I was disappointed really. It was an end of season game for long periods. They didn’t look like scoring, neither did we, so then we tried to really go more aggressive which meant we left ourselves open and we didn’t defend certain areas well. Then we just made poor decisions, which we have in games, that’s the level, that’s what we’ve got to get better at.”
Adam Idah gave the home side the lead 16 minutes from time before Miles Leaburn’s leveller three minutes later. Swansea netted twice in the final 10 minutes to take all three points.
Speaking of Leaburn’s goal, Jones said: “It was good delivery and a good header and it was just a shame we couldn’t go on from there. We wanted to go on from there but we didn’t. We turned the ball over after a good bit of play and then we were open and we didn’t handle that well and that’s the learning curve. We need to get better, whether that’s through personnel or learning. We’ve stayed up this year and that’s important but I’m not in football to do that. I’m not just a survivor, I want to push boundaries, to do that you have to just survive at times. You have to make sure you do the first phase of everything and we’ve done that and now it’s time that we move forward.”
The result sees Charlton finish in their highest league position since the 2014/15 season.
“We have to have a moment of pride because we could have gone down and that would have been a disaster,” Jones said. “We had a wonderful start. At certain times we’ve been unfortunate with injuries but we have to get better individuals, that make really good decisions over a period of time. We are behind people in terms of pure talent and pure ability because we haven’t got those resources and from where we’ve come from, people are more athletic than us as well. We have to improve on every single level.
“It’s hard work ahead of us this summer. On Monday and Tuesday we have meetings with all the players and staff and then it all starts again and that’s the reality of it. The thing for us is that at the first game of next season myself, the club and the fans look and go ‘wow, we have improved’.”
Attendances at The Valley were at a 17-year high this season and with 2026/27 season tickets selling well and another passionate away support backing the Addicks in Swansea, Jones was full of praise for the Charlton faithful.
He said: “The supporters have been wonderful. I hope they understand that today we went for the game and got hurt, that’s the learning curve for us, we can’t do that. We could have sat in and got a point and got a 0-0 but it’s the final game of the season. If we’d needed a point we would have done that.
“I remember us losing to Wycombe in the last game of the season in my first season here and I was devastated because we were on a 14-game unbeaten run. That galvanises me now, I know what I need. I made ruthless decisions in terms of who we got rid of and what changes we made at the end of that League One season and we got promoted the year after and this now is time to evaluate quickly and then really look to the future, that’s what we have to do.”
