Nathan Jones was thrilled with his side’s performance as they claimed a hard-fought victory at Wigan Athletic to kick off the season.
“I’m delighted,” he said. “Clean sheet, 1-0 win on the road - I couldn’t really ask for more.
“I don’t think they had any clear-cut chances, but we had to defend really, really well, and we did that. You look at Josh Edwards on the back stick and what he did. We won every first contact in the box and that was really, really important. It wasn’t a fluent goal, but when you’re away from goal first day of the season against a difficult side, you’ll take any win.”
In particular, the gaffer was pleased with his defence. “If you keep clean sheets then you’ve always got a chance,” he said.
“You only need one to win the game. We don’t always want to win 1-0. But away from home, we’ll take any win we can. The solidity that we showed, the aggression and the work rate and everything, I’m really pleased.
“We come away with a win, that will galvanise them. We’re going to be more fluent in games, I know that. But a win’s a win.”
The boss had his defence to thank for more than the clean sheet - it was Lloyd Jones’ 81st-minute strike which proved decisive.
“He only played four games for me last year because he was injured, but he did score in those games,” said the Manager. “He’s the only centre-half to score for me. I’m delighted with that - I want him to score, I want him to be aggressive, I want us to create and set plays to be a big thing for us. Today’s won us the game, so brilliant.”
The Addicks had to dig in, with the likes of Josh Edwards and Greg Docherty pulling up towards the end. “They were just cramping up,” Jones explained. “We’ve got the squad to be able to handle that, so we needed to utilise that.
“We’ve had a six-and-a-half, seven hour journey up yesterday, then you’re hanging around all day because it’s a 5.30 kick-off. It’s tough, it’s really tough. They’ve shown they can work hard. Yes, they had some cramp, but that just shows the level they’ve put in.”
Much like in last week’s game against Portsmouth, Jones was able to replace those on the pitch with the same level of quality off the bench.
“We’ve got to use the squad,” he said. “You can’t go 46 plus cup games and use 11 players. The squad’s got to be ready. We’re only as strong as that group, so yeah I’m really, really pleased.”
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