NATHAN Jones marked 50 league games in charge of Charlton Athletic with a win – and then celebrated with chicken nuggets.
Macaulay Gillesphey scored the only goal against Barnsley with a free-kick in the twelfth minute at The Valley on Tuesday night to send the Addicks fifth in League One.
It was a sixth league win on the bounce in their own backyard and they are not out of the automatic promotion equation as they trail second-place Wycombe Wanderers by eight points.
“I’ll have some chicken nuggets and maybe a bottle of Leffe,” Jones said on Charlton TV when asked how he would celebrate his half-century. “I’m very proud of that. I don’t mean to be coy. I’m very proud of little milestones because I’m a little boy from a mining community in the Rhondda Valley so to be in charge of such a prestigious club, I don’t take those things for granted.
“I’m very proud and very humbled to manage great football clubs and I have had the privilege of doing that.
“Right now I’m at one of the best and I love my job. I love the fact I get entrusted to manage the club. I love the people I meet, I love what we have here and we’re nowhere near want we want to be yet. There is a lot of work to go.”
Jones added: “I’m really pleased with the win. Barnsley are a good side, they’ve won three on the bounce, they’ve got some real attacking players that cause you real problems. The way they play is awkward to play against, it’s difficult, you have to keep being aggressive in your press and everything you do. I thought we were really, really good. I was really pleased with the level of performance. We tweaked a few things at half time and I felt we were far more comfortable second half than we were in the first.”
Charlton are away to Stockport County on Saturday at 12.30pm.
