Johnnie Jackson was delighted to progress to the second-round of the Emirates FA Cup after his side recorded a 4-0 triumph over Havant & Waterlooville at The Valley on Saturday afternoon.
Josh Davison broke the deadlock after 72 minutes before Jayden Stockley added a quickfire double, while Mason Burstow bagged his second Charlton goal late on.
“I’m really pleased to win the game,” Jackson told CharltonTV. “We scored four goals and probably should have had more in the end, but I thought Havant were an absolute credit. They made it really, really difficult for us for long periods and actually in the first-half limited us to quite little chances. We ended up winning convincingly in the end but I think they should be really pleased with their efforts there because they gave us a tough test.
“I’m delighted to be in the second-round, I demanded that we do that,” continued the Caretaker Manager. “I knew that if we set about the game with the right mentality that we should have enough quality to go through. That’s no disrespect to Havant but obviously we’ve got better players, so we had to turn up right which we did and we’ve got ourselves through.
“It’s the FA Cup, we want to take it seriously,” he added. “We’re into the second-round and we want to get into the third-round and see where it takes us. I’ve got a good squad to choose from, so I could have made 11 changes and had a very strong team out there - a team I would have expected to win the game. It’s an opportunity to utilise the squad, but also it’s a really strong team that we’re putting out there.”
Stephen Henderson enjoyed a clean sheet on his first Charlton start since February 2016 having rejoined the club this summer, and Jackson was pleased with the stopper’s showing.
“We spoke a lot about their threats at set pieces - throw-ins into the box, corners into the box and crosses into the box. They had little moments there; they got a couple of corners, they put some balls into our box and we had to defend.
“Sometimes when you don’t defend it then you need your goalie to get you out of trouble as well. So, a good save from Hendo [Stephen Henderson], it was a little hairy moment - one of few relatively in the game that he had little to do, but he was ready when called upon.”
The Caretaker Manager was thrilled with the impact of substitutes Ben Watson, Elliot Lee and Mason Burstow, reserving particular praise for the latter who bagged his maiden FA Cup goal just four minutes after his introduction.
“I put Ben Watson and Elliot Lee on and they both had exactly the impact that I hoped that they would,” explained Jackson. “Elliot is a clever player, we know about him; he picks up great positions and he’s creative. He just gave us a little bit of impetus and forward momentum which I knew he would. He was ready to come on and so was Ben Watson. They helped us keep the ball and keep it moving side to side, so really pleased with their impact.
“Then obviously you’re bringing young Mason [Burstow] on and I said to him as he was going onto the pitch, ‘you’ll score!’ Because we were starting to create a lot and I knew that he would get in good positions. He’s a talented young player that we think the world of. I celebrated that one more than any of the others because when a young lad comes on and scores, and a great goal by the way. As he’s breaking he might pull it back - I was hoping he wouldn’t, I was hoping he would take it on himself. I don’t even think he had a thought in his head about pulling it back and a great finish - a proper striker’s finish that. I’m delighted for him.
“We gave him a little ripple there in the changing room because he scored in the Papa John’s, but now he’s scored in the FA Cup,” added the 39-year-old. “It’s a prestigious tournament and one that I love, and I’m sure one that he’ll love now because he’s got an FA Cup goal and that will be there forever now; they’ll never take that away from him.”