CHARLTON Athletic boss Nathan Jones revealed he challenged his team to chase more goals at half-time in their 4-0 demolition of League One automatic promotion rivals Wycombe Wanderers.
The Addicks took an eleventh-minute lead when Lloyd Jones beat goalkeeper Will Norris and made it 2-0 in the 24th minute through Luke Berry’s shot from fifteen yards.
Matty Godden scored the third on 58 minutes and Karoy Anderson added the fourth four minutes later.
Charlton kept eighteen-goal Wycombe striker Richard Kone quiet as they cut the gap to the Chairboys to two points.
The only disappointment was Chuks Aneke’s straight red card after he clashed with Luke Leahy in added-time.
Charlton will move to within one point of Wrexham in second with a win at their rivals this weekend.
“I thought we were excellent,” Jones said. “It was a real frenetic start from both sides but then once we got the goal I thought there was only one side that was going to win it. We got the goal, got the second one. They are a very, very good side, they have the [second] top-scorer in the league. I thought Lloyd Jones was magnificent again to curtail him.
“At half-time we said, ‘what sort of a team do we want to be? Do we want to be a team that defends a two-goal lead and makes it edgy or do we just go after the game?’ We went after the game.
“It’s a magnificent performance because we come to second place, we win 4-0, we keep a clean sheet against one of the highest scorers, one of the top strikers in the league – it’s a wonderful performance and under the pressure we were under as well.”
Jones added: “Some of the goals were magnificent. You will not see a better strike anywhere in English football today than Luke Berry’s. Then there is a goalkeeping error [for Godden’s goal] but we have to press and work hard and get after them. We’re away from home, we’re two up and we’re going after the game.
“Then it is a wonderful ball and a wonderful header to really seal the win and it didn’t flatter us in anyway because I can’t remember our goalkeeper making a save.”
Jones’ side equalled a club record by registering a 20th clean sheet of the season in the league.
Jones added: “We came here last year and they’d kept three [clean sheets] in 35 or 36 games. We only kept two in the final sixteen games, which was good enough to get us to the position we finished last year but I knew it wasn’t going to be good enough to get us where we want to be this season. We had to first of all sort that out, which we did and we have.
“Then every single week is an evolution process in terms of getting better in possession, scoring more goals, being more clinical, being more confident, being more accomplished with the ball and we are a work in progress, we’re just over a year in – I think we’re in a good place.”
The kick-off this Saturday at the Racecourse Ground is at 5.30pm.
