Nathan Jones was full of optimism as the Addicks secured a 1-1 draw against Rotherham United at The Valley on Saturday evening.
The result means the Addicks are averaging two points per game from their opening five league games of the season.
Speaking post-game he said: “The positives that we can take is that we are bang on, every five games we have a target for points, and we are bang on it at the minute."
Chuks Aneke’s second-half stunner levelled the scoring, extending the Addicks’ unbeaten streak to 10 league games on home soil.
“It seems like we would be disappointed today because we drew a game at home, also having lost the last game, but we are in a good position," Jones added. "If you get 10 points every five games, then you are in a real good position.
“Today we knew it was going to be a really difficult game, they were going to be tough to play against. It was going to be difficult to, and I don’t mean any disrespect, it was very difficult to create a tempo against them because almost everything was a restart. When it is like that you try to get fluency, and we couldn’t really do that.
“I thought we had the better chances, Gassan [Ahadme] has a wonderful chance early on, also knocking one down for Bez [Luke Berry] who I expect to hit the target there. It took two strikes from outside the box to break the deadlock in a tight game. At the minute we are one of the best defensive sides in the league, if not the best defensive side in terms of our xG [expected goals] against. We seem to get beaten from 20/25 yards or wherever it is, that is something we have to address. Apart from that, I am proud of the performance, it wasn’t pretty, it was brutal at times. 10 points after five games it’s not the worst place to be.
“In the build-up we need to make decisions quicker. We gave them very little today, Will [Mannion] had one save to make from Mallik Wilks in the first-half which was a bit of a ricochet, that can happen. They throw the ball in and have a ricochet, that is what they created.
“For us, in a brutal game, we stood up to it and were defensively strong, we didn’t go under. We only concede from outside of the box at the minute pretty much. There are a lot of positives to take from it, yes, we have to close balls down, but overall, defensively we have been excellent. What we have to do is make sure we are more fluent, a little bit more quality in our crosses and things that we do.
“When we display quality, we do get chances, that is the frustration today, not enough quality in a difficult game. They were tough opponents in how they play, defend and work, but I expect us to be better."
