NATHAN Jones said it would have been “a real travesty” had Charlton Athletic lost after they twice came from behind against Burnley at Turf Moor and claimed a point through Ivan Mesik’s 96th-minute equaliser in the 2-2 draw.
Mesik fired home his first Addicks goal to deny the Clarets a first home league win since October 18 last year.
Jamie Vardy made his first Burnley chance but shot wide from his only real chance.
Jacob Bruun Larsen gave the hosts the lead before the break but Kayne Ramsay levelled by finishing into the roof of the net from two yards after Burnley failed to deal with a corner.
Largie Ramazani restored Burnley’s lead with a smart low finish in the 57th minute.
But Charlton came back again and went the length of the pitch from a throw-in in the right-back position before Harvey Knibbs played Mesik in on the left side of the box. The Slovakia international took a touch and fired a low shot towards the far corner that Gregoire Coudert got his hand to but couldn’t keep out.
Charlton haven’t won in seven games but the 1,000 fans in the away end didn’t care at the final whistle.
“It was the least we deserved,” Jones said on Charlton’s website. “It would have been a real travesty if we’d lost that game. One with the level of performance, two with the actual clarity of the chances we created. We should have won that game but to lose it would have been a travesty.
“After we’d started so well in the game, we’d controlled the game, for large periods of it, second half, especially. Then we got the goal, and then to concede, just knocked the wind out of us.
“Then you see the character, because we keep going. I mean, clear-cut chances, big chances, we should score. We should have scored three or four, and that’s the disappointing thing, because if we had just demonstrated that little bit of quality, we would have.
“We caused real problems when we played with tempo and played into the front and ran harder than them. We created a lot.
“Look, let’s look at the positives, the character of the team, the desire, the game-changers to come on, then the quality of the second goal, the lateness of it just meant that it’s a positive result and if we hadn’t it would have been a tough bus journey home because we deserved more.”
Jones believes the side is evolving this season despite that winless run.
He said: “It requires patience, it requires constant work, it requires tweaks. It requires information, it requires showing, good, bad, or how can we improve in terms of stuff. It does require that because the Championship is brutal.
“There are teams in this league with four or five times our budget, with pedigrees and a recent history, considerably above ours. We play catch-up a little bit, but we’re not moaning about that. That’s just the reality of it, but we are evolving to the last two games, for example, we’ve had more possession than opposition. That’s Bristol City, who have been a perennial Championship team for many years and this is the Premier League team and Championship team, so these have got quality players so to have possession, it shows that we are evolving.
“What we have to do now is to convert one, that possession, into goals, because we created clear-cut chances today. It’s just taking those chances, and then making sure we keep the back door shut, so that we can keep clean sheets, be that team, and then that’s the evolution.”
Mesik praised fellow substitute Knibbs after his first-time pass set up the chance at goal.
“I just saw Knibbsy on the ball, so I knew that I had to sprint into the box and I just believed that he would pass me the ball,” Mesik said.
“He put it to my feet straight away, so I knew that I had to finish it in front of the goalkeeper. It was a brilliant finish to the game, so we’re happy for the point.
“I only got back from the national team on Thursday, so I haven’t had much time to practise that kind of finishing.
“When you come off the bench, you have to make a difference and make an impact, so I’m happy for the other guys as well who came on. We did a great job together and we’re grateful to get this point away.”
Charlton host struggling Watford on Saturday.
Mesik added: “There’s still a lot of work in front of us and things for us to improve before Saturday, but we have plenty of time to prepare and, hopefully, it will be a great game.”
Meanwhile, Jones had special praise for Addicks fans.
He said: “Let me tell you, it’s as proud as I’ve been of them tonight because they never stopped singing, they never stopped singing my name right throughout, even when we were 2-1 behind. They kept driving the team on. They saw a team, they saw a performance, they’re intelligent our fans. It’s Burnley on a Tuesday night. It’s a great game for our supporters, because it’s probably a little while since they played Burnley. So to ask them to go all the way up to Lancashire on a Tuesday night and a thousand-plus did – that’s class. That’s why I’m proud of our club. But I’m really proud of them tonight, because they saw something they got behind it, and I’m convinced they aided us tonight.”
