Nathan Jones praised his squad’s attitude following the Portsmouth draw.
Charlton Athletic produced an outstanding defensive performance to send league leaders Portsmouth home with only one point. The Valley may not have seen the most exciting encounter to date, with neither team scoring, but it was a valuable draw that demonstrated Nathan Jones’ club can once again compete with the league’s best.
Daniel Kanu did his best to excite the Addicks fans, but no shot got past Portsmouth’s Will Norris, with Kanu’s first attempt hitting the goal post within the first 10 minutes.
However, despite increasingly intense play, the 90+7 minutes of football ended 0-0.
Following the game, Nathan Jones praised his team’s defensive performance, saying: “(Portsmouth) are top of the league.” We can score at will against most teams, so I’m particularly thrilled with our second-half performance and clean sheet. It demonstrates that we have made a positive progress.”
This is Jones’ third draw in as many games, and he said: “We’ve come up against some good teams lately. Today, we faced off against both Bolton and Pompey. I saw a lot of what I wanted to see from my squad, and aside from a lack of quality in the last third, I thought it was a great effort.”
Substitute Macaulay Gillesphey made a fantastic last-minute tackle to deny Portsmouth a chance to score in what could have been an open goal situation. Jones admitted that the tackle, which occurred in the last moments of the game, was “wonderful.” It would have been a travesty if we had lost in that fashion right away.
“We establish the standards. We don’t think we’ve cracked it yet, but it’s laying the groundwork for us to defend well, keep clean sheets, and score on the other end. It’s a positive point, a solid performance; we’ve competed with the league’s top teams. They are a positive side.
“We’ve faced two of the league’s finest sides. Lincoln are a pretty good team; we should have won that game easily, but we didn’t. We are not exhibiting that quality in the final third, but we have already gone three games unbeaten. We want to win games, but there is a foundation.
getting laid, and now it’s just constant work to find the perfect team so we can 1) acquire that aggressiveness, 2) build that foundation, and 3) open up the team and win games.
“I felt we were the better team in the second half. I thought we had good situations without demonstrating the quality. Every time we demonstrated an ounce of quality, we had a chance. We put a few balls in the box, but I want 20 balls of high quality to create opportunities so that if we miss one, another one will come up.
“But we have that defensive steadiness, and we’re improving on it. Then we can start improving quality, creating opportunities, and winning games.”
Lloyd Jones, on the other hand, received his tenth booking of the season, and he will be unavailable for the next game. However, this has not deterred the former Southampton manager, who stated: “It simply offers someone else a chance. We have the cover. He’s been silly because he picked it up as disagreement, so we’ll deal with it.
“The problem with defenders is that when they make a mistake, it costs them, and it is highlighted. A centre-forward can mishandle the ball, which leads to nothing. However, when something happens to a goalie or while defending, it is concerning.
“I signed Lloyd from Luton.” Provide competition. I know what he can do. It’s simply about getting everyone to play to the fullest. Other persons who have played on a regular basis may not be playing right now.
“But I have to find the balance 1) athleticism, 2) defensive solidity and also pick a team that can open up teams and that’s taking a little bit of time.”
Two individuals, however, embodied what Jones was looking for, and the Addicks manager applauded the enthusiasm deep inside the group: “We’ve got so much character (in the squad).” You only have to look at the young boys, Karoy Anderson and Kanu, who are defying their age and leading by example. And that is brilliant.”
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