‘It’s vital I keep an equilibrium’ – Nathan Jones on Charlton’s major upturn in League One fortunes

Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones has talked about the importance of him maintaining perspective – no matter what run of form his side are on.

The Addicks are sixth in League One after a strong run of results.

Only Birmingham (24) have taken more points than Charlton (23) in the last 10 league matches, the latter total also matched by Leyton Orient.

Before Charlton’s 2-0 win over Stevenage yesterday the only side to have scored more in the last 10 matches was the O’s (20).

Asked about that statistic, Jones said: “You guys do the stats ‘one win in 10 or 11’ – you’ve reminded me of those things (earlier in the season). So it’s nice to know positive stats.

“But, as I keep saying, it is a 46-game season. You can’t get too high after three games when you’ve got nine points and everyone is dancing around. You can’t. You can’t then, when you have a poor performance against Crawley or Bristol Rovers away, suddenly be so negative that it affects everything.

“As a manager you have to have an equilibrium of you decision-making, mood and everything. Then you have got to believe in what you’re doing. If you believe in what you’re doing – hammer it home – then eventually if it is good work it will come to fruition. We have got the sprouts of that fruition now.

“I’d rather be top six rather than seventh, eight, ninth or 10th. But we are not finished yet. We have got 17 games to go. It is a long, long way to go. There are going to be some twists and turns. I don’t want us to have a dip but whatever happens we are showing we are a consistent outfit and that is important.

“That is our 13th clean sheet in the league, 16th all in all. You’ve got to compare with last season – five clean sheets in the league and that was a full season as well. So we are improving stuff constantly.

“Now we are getting a little bit more fluent in how we do stuff.”