Charlton boss Jones assesses ‘hard-fought’ opening day win at Wigan Athletic

Charlton manager Nathan Jones praised his side after a “hard-fought” 1-0 win at Wigan Athletic on the opening day.

The Addicks kicked their League One campaign off with all three points thanks to defender Lloyd Jones’ smart strike nine minutes from time.

Wins and clean sheets were hard to come by on the road last season – with the Addicks earning just three maximums and only one shut out on their travels.

But they kicked this campaign off with one of each in the north west – in a game that saw Will Mannion, Josh Edwards, Alex Mitchell, Greg Docherty and Gassan Ahadme all make their full Charlton debuts – with Luke Berry also introduced from the bench late on.

The Addicks had to battle for the victory in a tightly-contested game that saw the hosts dominate possession.

Boss Jones said: “We know we’re not going to dominate every game. The Valley is going to be big for us, but we’ve got to make sure when we are away from home, we are picking up points and wins. We’re going to come up against some well coached sides who will cause us problems.

“Structurally we were very good. Out of possession we really went after then – we were brave in terms of that. The only disappointing thing was we didn’t cause them more problems with our play.

“This is a tough place to come on the first day of the season, away from home. You’d have taken that all day long. If someone had said to me: ‘You can have a 1-0 win,’ I wouldn’t have even got on the bus. I’d have just taken it. I’m very pleased we were able to achieve that.

“I learned that [his new look side] will give me everything and work hard. I think we’ll be better defensively than we were last year. We still need a few additions. We’ve got the full quota of what we have.

We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’ve got a structure and a way of playing. They believe in that, which is the good thing.”

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS