‘Thoroughly professional’ - Charlton Athletic boss delighted at emphatic win over League One promotion rivals

Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones had only positive words for his troops after their 4-0 victory at Wycombe Wanderers today.

The result moves the South Londoners up to third in the League One table ahead of Saturday’s trip to Wrexham.

Lloyd Jones volleyed the Addicks into an 11th minute lead from Greg Docherty’s right-wing cross.

Luke Berry quickly made it 2-0 with a right-footed finish after the ball dropped to him in the box as the hosts failed to clear Thierry Small’s diagonal delivery which had been headed down by Jones.

The hosts were second in the standings coming into the fixture but were left shellshocked by a quickfire double in the second half.

Matty Godden punished Chairboys keeper Will Norris slipping as he went to clear the ball and then Karoy Anderson, who had been an early replacement for Berry, headed in Small’s cross.

“I’m delighted and proud,” said Jones. “It is some performance to come here to second place and do what we did under the pressure we had. We had to win today.

“We were positive from minute one. It was a bit frenetic in the first 10-12 minutes but once it settled down we got the first goal and then got the second pretty quickly. We were good value for that.

“The second half I wanted us to step on again and be even more aggressive because I didn’t feel we had real quality in the first half. We gave the ball away too easily and we could’ve put a bit more pressure on – especially their centre-halves and go after their keeper.

“We did. It was an error (for the third goal) but then we were on and were outstanding. These are a very good side, one of the best sides in the league and have one of the best strikers in the league. They had kept five clean sheets in six matches. That’s some win, that.

“We don’t want to over-egg it – it’s three points. We would’ve taken a scrappy 1-0, whatever it was. So to get that level of performance under pressure was very pleasing.”

Jones was full of admiration for Berry’s goal as the former Luton Town midfielder netted in back-to-back matches.

“You won’t see a better strike in English football,” said the Welshman. “It came out at pace so to hit it like that – the trajectory and everything – it was a goal of the season contender.”

Jones could be seen urging Charlton fans to stop with chants of ‘ole’ as their side passed the ball in the second period.

“I don’t want us to be a side that takes the p***,” he said. “I want to be relentless, ruthless and see games out. We could have to come back here. I don’t want anything to cloud our mentality in terms of a swagger.

“We were thoroughly professional today in what we did.”

PICTURE: KYLE ANDREWS

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