Play-off hopefuls Charlton Athletic secured a deserved win at home against title chasing Wycombe Wanderers in their Sky Bet Division One match at The Valley.

After the match, Addicks’ manager, Nathan Jones, held a press conference. He said “(It was) a really good performance from start to finish. These are the top scorers in the league, a very dangerous side, but we limited them to very little today and then I thought that we had most of the big chances, if not all the big chances. It got a little bit hairy at the end because we didn’t do something. We were well worth our victory.”

Whilst he described the ending as hairy after Wycombe pulled a goal back in the latter stages, Charlton’s defence held firm and didn’t look like conceding again. Jones explained “In the crowd there was an edginess and as a manager you’re an eternal pessimist.

“You think that something could fall to the front three they’ve got, anything could happen. They got a few free kicks so you just never know, you never can relax. At two-nil, you pretty well can relax because you can see the game out, but when there’s only one,(goal difference) you can draw the game and we’d have been very disappointed to have drawn that game.”

He continued “They will point to situations that they’ve had but we’ve had real good chances today and I’d have taken that performance, that win, and that level all day long. They haven’t lost since August, the second game of the season, so they’re a very, very good side.”

After a disappointing result at home to Crawley Town, Charlton have now gone five league games undefeated to move to ninth place in the table, four points behind the play-off zone. “As long as we score one more than the opposition every game, I’ve got no issue.” said Jones, “We like to keep clean sheets because we pride ourselves on that. It would have been a travesty if we had drawn that. They probably had a little more possession than us but we had the better chances in the opposition box. We were very good value for our win against a very good well coached team.”

Next up for the Addicks is an away game at Crawley. Jones will be looking for a better outcome than in their previous meeting. Jones admitted “The backlash from the Crawley defeat here was quite catastrophic, was unbelievable, so we’d like to put that right.

“There’s a really good side in there. We’ve just got to add that consistency. If we lose a game, it’s usually by one goal. It’s a tight game and we usually have missed chances in that game so it can go either way. You don’t see us getting beaten three or four and out of the game, or just two-nil and somebody just cruising the game. That doesn’t happy to us. That is a real good nucleus of a really good football team in here. 

“At times, we don’t do everything that I’d like us to, we’re not as fluent. Sometimes things go against us and we understand that. There’s an honest, real good football team in there. If they just believe and keep working hard, there’s a fantastic football team in there.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.