Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones shared his pride after his side confirmed their participation in the League One playoffs, as reported by News Shopper.
The Addicks overcame relegation-threatened Northampton Town at The Valley on Good Friday.
Huge Pride At Where They’ve Come From
The former Luton Town boss took over a Charlton aide languishing in the lower reaches of League One and has faced criticism along the way but, after confirming their top-six finish, is proud of what’s gone at the club over the last 14 months.
“I’m really proud of everyone involved in the football club. We’ve had to go through some tough times.”
“We’ve come from 18th in League One. Not won in 18 games, to where we are now, the work that’s gone on in that year has been considerable.”
Jones went on to discuss how pleased he was with his players this season and the current state of the football club.
“We’ve stuck together. We’ve believed in what we’ve done. We’ve worked religiously, we do good work.”
“Personally, I’ve had to come through a lot in terms of criticisms the team has and to see how we are today, to see a club united I’m really proud.”
Jones Wants Time to Progress
Despite a poor spell at Southampton in his previous role, Jones led Luton Town’s resurgence up the divisions and referred to those achievements when looking to Charlton Athletic’s future.
“When we’ve tried to build a club, when we tried to take a club forward, for example when I took over Luton, I was given time at Luton and they went from League Two to the Premier League in pretty much that span (four to five years).”
“Obviously I didn’t take them to the Premier League but the foundations were all laid and that’s the foundations we lay in here and every single year was a meteoric jump in everything.”
“That’s the progression we have to look for here and I’m really proud of that because a lot of things have to go right, a lot of people have to be good at what they do.”
Automatic Promotion Still A Target
Having secured at least a playoff spot, Jones hasn’t given up hope of his side going one better and gaining automatic promotion.
The Addicks currently have 79 points and are five behind second-place Wycombe Wanderers but the former Southampton boss has not given up hope.
“We have to win all three games. We can’t draw again, we can’t rely on others. To get promoted (automatically) we have to have 88 points minimum and 88 is the maximum we can get.”
Writer’s View
While automatic promotion may be slightly out of reach, with just one defeat in 12 Charlton will fancy their chances in the end-of-season lottery that is the playoffs.
