NATHAN Jones was more satisfied with the three points than the performance as Charlton Athletic won 1-0 at Shrewsbury Town to go second in League One.
Gassan Ahadme scored the only goal of the game five minutes into the second half.
The Addicks have a new set-piece coach in James Brayne, and it was from Lloyd Jones’ looping header from a corner that Ahadme bundled over the line for his first goal since he joined from Ipswich Town in the summer.
“I’m delighted with three points, a clean sheet and a goal from a set-play,” Jones said. “The conditions were difficult today, which made it difficult first half to get ourselves really front-footed – we were really passive and I thought we were really poor first half.
“Second half we stepped on, exactly like we did against Reading, it was an almost identical game. We were poor first half but had real good situations where we didn’t show a bit of quality and then second half we started like a house on fire, really took the game to them and stepped on to them and that is when we were better. This time we were fortunate enough and got the goal.
“When you play like that you’ve got to make sure that you win. It was an ugly win, a win where you have just got to dig in and keep a clean sheet and hope that you nick another goal, because we had some good chances second half. I’m pleased with the points, the performance we’ll have to dissect as we’ll have to be better than that. Any away win in the league is really important.”
Jones was delighted for Ahadme and that Charlton’s work on set-piece paid off.
He said: “I don’t care who scores as long as we score one more than the opposition then that is all that matters to me. It’s important sometimes for strikers to get goals, it’s excellent to score from a set-play because we work religiously on them and haven’t scored enough. Lloyd is a big threat and what we have in the side, we should be scoring more. We’re a big side with good aggression, we’ve got some good technical players. It is pleasing to do that and pleasing to see Gas get off the mark because that would have been playing on him.
“He’s a focal point and we brought him in for that, he hasn’t been used to playing like we do, so he’s had to adjust and it takes time. It really, really takes time – I’m pleased for him.”
