CHARLTON Athletic manager Nathan Jones heaped the praise on Alfie May after the striker’s brace against Carlisle United helped earn the Addicks their first win at The Valley since last November.
After Luke Armstrong gave League One’s bottom side the lead in the 20th minute, May levelled on in the 37 minutes before Daniel Kanu put the hosts in front nine minutes into the second half.
Paul Simpson’s side threatened to spoil the afternoon for expectant Charlton fans in the 13,978 crowd when Taylor Charters scored from the penalty spot after Macaulay Gillesphey had fouled Armstrong.
But May netted the winner fifteen minutes from time with his 20th league goal of the season.
“He’s a wonderful player,” Jones said. “He’s a clever player, he’s a great lad and he’s brilliant around the place. He thinks about his game, he thinks about his movement, and he doesn’t just go and play off the cuff.
“He’s scored goals wherever he’s been, he’s come here and he’s been scoring goals. His dip coincided with a dip in the team’s form, which can happen, but all you have to do is keep giving these players confidence and keep talking to them. And Alfie’s responded fantastically well.”
Charlton were three points clear of the relegation zone when Jones took over but are now ten above the bottom four and on a seven-match unbeaten run.
Jones said: “Really pleased with so much. Pleased with the result because that is the be-all and end-all at this stage and where we are. Really pleased with so much of the play.
“Disappointed with certain aspects of it, especially the goals. We gifted them two goals. They didn’t have to work hard for the goals, bit lazy on the second one. The first one was just a poor goal to give away.
“But we showed we can score goals. We scored three goals at home, we could’ve scored more. We were a threat all afternoon. Created chances all afternoon and we won the game, deservedly so.
“It felt very good [to win at home]. I’ll take wins anywhere and points. By hook or by crook we’ve had to get as many points as we can to get away from the position we were in. We’re in a lot healthier position now than we were eight games ago and that’s’ the main thing.
“It wasn’t [about] survival, it was about getting performances. Yes, we want to make sure that we don’t get sucked into any kind of relegation thing but we want to finish as high as we possibly can because we want to build.
“We’re not just planning for now, we want to build for the future as well.”
Jones added: “We can’t give goals away like that. It was lazy defending. We were slow first half. We were caught in possession. We conceded the corner, we didn’t clear it, and it was scrappy.
“That’s not how you keep clean sheets and we’ve got to get out of that mentality.
“But we won the game. We’re climbing that league. We’ve got 44 points whereas we had 30 or something like that when I came in. So it shows we’re in decent form and I’m very happy with that.
“Keeping clean sheets is a great habit, not losing is another great habit. But winning games is even better.”
Charlton travel to Fleetwood Town on Saturday.
