Four takeaways from Charlton’s 1-0 win at Sunderland: Johnnie Jackson passes his first test with flying colours

Johnnie Jackson’s stint as caretaker manager was off to the perfect start as the Addicks upset the odds and ended Sunderland’s 100 percent home record. Jayden Stockley’s header was the difference between the two sides as Charlton claimed an important three points on their trip to the north east. Louis Mendez provides his four takeaways from a special day at the Stadium of Light.

WHAT A TRANSFORMATION

Chalk and cheese. The difference between the Addicks’ recent fragmented displays and the performance at the Stadium of Light was stark – and Jackson will take plenty of credit for that. The caretaker manager said that his first demand upon his side was that the work rate was sky high and that was demonstrated in abundance. Sprinkle that little bit of quality in – and Jonathan Leko had that oozing out of him – and results will start to follow. There will be some legitimate questions from fans as to why this battling side hadn’t really been seen so far this season but Jackson won’t waste too much time worrying about that. What follows is what matters. Sometimes you need a shock to the system to wake a team up and the dismissal of Nigel Adkins seems to have had that result so far. Not a bad first interview for Jackson.

CHANGE IN SHAPE

Jackson stamped his authority on the side immediately by changing the shape and a fair whack of the personnel too. The 3-5-2 system had worked for Lee Bowyer a few times when Charlton went away to big sides in the Championship – excellent points at Fulham and West Brom come immediately to mind. Jackson utilised the same shape at the Stadium of Light and it gave the Addicks a fighting chance of picking up the result that they did. The caretaker boss is going to live and die by the choices he makes over the next few weeks and this was a good one. As with any rookie manager, we’ll learn how astute he is tactically as time goes on but he’s certainly been around long enough to pick up some nous and some tricks too – the eagle-eyed amongst those who travelled up north would have seen Charlton even warmed-up the defence as if they were setting up as a back-four to throw Lee Johnson off the scent.

NICE ONE DOB-SON

He had been frozen out since the defeat at Wycombe a few weeks ago but George Dobson was thrown back in by Jackson and impressed in front of the back three. The added incentive of playing against a former side where he would feel he had something to prove would have made this an even bigger game for Dobson. He broke up play superbly and disrupted Sunderland’s flow when needed to. I was worried that he may have been blunted by the yellow card he picked up shortly before half-time but he wasn’t. Something to build upon.

STOCKLEY USING HIS HEAD TO DEVASTATING EFFECT

Sunderland were rightly furious after the referee failed to show a red card that was the result of something the Charlton forward did with his head. That’s right, Luke O’Nien should have walked for handling Stockley’s header on the line. I guess we’ll just settle for the goal instead. As for what Lee Johnson claimed was a headbutt on Tom Flanagan… let’s just say if Stockley has grown a second head on his shoulder then we need to contact some scientists as soon as possible. Laughable.

PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS