By Georgia Garnett at The Valley
CHARLTON Athletic manager Nathan Jones lauded his team’s ability to bounce back following a dominant 4-0 victory over Huddersfield Town in League One on Saturday afternoon.
An opening-minute header from Matty Godden, two goals from Tyreece Campbell and a Greg Docherty shot deflecting off Huddersfield goalkeeper Lee Nicholls ensured the perfect rebound from a 3-0 loss to Peterborough the previous weekend.
The win sees the Addicks remain in fourth place in League One, strengthening their case for the play-offs with just seven games remaining in the regular season.
Speaking post-match, Jones said: “I think from start to finish we were outstanding.
“Last week we had a game where we got caught a little bit, got really the exact same aggressive high press when they go back, just it wasn’t as clinical as we were this week.
“But that’s how we play any time. Teams can risk and reward and leave team players out or not and not track you and they got lucky last week, we came up against a very good front four that caught us on a day where we were a little bit forward. It was the exact same last week and this week, to bounce back in that manner against the level of team that we played against was very, very good.”
The Terriers had beaten Charlton in their last five meetings and thrashed Crawley 5-1 the previous weekend. That led to the sacking of Rob Elliot, the former Charlton goalkeeper.
Jones added: “This is a very, very good side, came down from the Championship, big budgets, spent heavy in the January window, recruited well in the summer so realistically, you know, this is a wonderful performance.
“You have to consider the level of performance. I watched a team fold against them the other day, got their manager sacked, and I demanded from our group that I wasn’t going to let that happen to us.”
Campbell, 21, has scored seven goals in all competitions this season.
Jones said: “Tyreece is a young player, he’s developing. There’s plenty more to come and he’s a joy to work with, every day he works hard, every day he comes in with a smile on his face.
“It’s a dual thing, really. We have to give him the work and demand from him and keep him grounded and put him in the right areas, and then he has to respond, to be fair, and he has been responding.”
“He’s a threat and we love him and we’re very, very fortunate to have him in this football club. And he’s come through our wonderful academy, and so more to come.”
In turn, Campbell reciprocated the praise from his head coach.
Campbell said: “From the start [of the season] until now, I’ve improved – his belief in me gives me confidence on the pitch to try stuff that I do in training, so yeah, thankful.”
Both Jones and Campbell praised the crowd at the Valley, as 17,278 were in attendance, the majority revelling in the victory.
Campbell said: “It’s really good [to play in front of a large, vibrant crowd]. It gives us so much confidence on the pitch that we’re not afraid to try stuff – and it helps when everyone’s happy.”
Jones added: “We want more [of this kind of attendance], this club being at the higher echelons of English football as we said, big crowds, full houses, stuff like that – we’d like to get back there.
“Obviously it’s going to take time to get back to the higher echelons but the full crowds can happen any time – so you welcome anyone.”
Charlton return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Mansfield Town for a 7.45pm kick-off.
