NATHAN Jones praised Charlton Athletic supporters for travelling to Lincoln in “horrific conditions” as the Addicks and the Imps battled to a brutal 0-0 draw at Sincil Bank last weekend.
The sides had only one shot on target each with neither goalkeeper really seriously troubled.
Charlton have now only won one of their last eight games in League One and are eight points off the top six.
But Jones did see some positives, including another solid defensive performance and an improvement on their 2-1 defeat to Crawley Town at The Valley in their previous games.
“I’d have liked us to have scored when we were on top in the first half but it wasn’t to be,” Jones said. “Conditions were horrific – well done to the fans who travelled because the conditions, the weather was absolutely horrific.
“I’m proud of the way the boys stuck at it. That’s our seventh clean sheet in the league, we only had five the whole of last season. That’s improved.
“We had eleven players there who grafted and wanted to get something out of the game, as did the ones who came on. A little bit more quality in the final third and we could have nicked it but the conditions took away anything of the spectacle. But we grafted, it’s our seventh clean sheet in the league, tenth over all. Defensively, we’re improving, now we have to be a little bit more fluent.”
Jones added: “I thought we were brave, I thought we played. I thought we tried to take the sting out of the game, because in terms of the weather, we couldn’t kick over the halfway line second half. We were a real victim of the weather but the lads stuck at it. I thought they were brilliant, worked hard and had to earn a clean sheet – we limited them to nothing and that shows the team worked hard.
“After midweek I was really disappointed because that was not us, that’s not how I ask them to play, it’s not what we work on day in and day out – that won’t happen again.
“We’d have liked to have won the game, we want three points but it was very difficult. The fans, us, everyone – we had to work hard for that point and we have. There will be better football matches. It’s not a glorious victory but it’s a positive point.”
Lloyd Jones made his first start since the 1-0 win over Birmingham City on October 5.
His boss said: “It’s been good to have Lloyd back. Lloyd’s a leader for us. He’s been a big miss. We’ve missed him, we’ve missed Kayne [Ramsay]. We’ve had some big injuries which have disrupted certain things.
“We’ve got two more games this week, two home games, so we really want positive results in that. Performance had to improve from Tuesday in terms of how we go about our play. But I was pleased with a lot of it, especially the bravery we showed and coming here in these conditions and to play in the manner that we did because it was very difficult.”
