Lloyd Jones welcomes ‘positive draw’ at Lincoln City – and says players take the blame for recent long-ball antics

Charlton defender Lloyd Jones hopes that the draw with Lincoln City can be viewed as a positive point.

Conditions were treacherous at Sincil Bank, with Storm Darragh reaping havoc across the UK.

Jones was making his first start since the win over Birmingham in October after a return from injury.

Chances were limited for both sides – with the Addicks keeping their seventh clean sheet of the League One season. The stalemate means it’s now just one win in eight league outings for the South Londoners.

The centre-half said: “[Conditions were] absolutely shocking. I’ve got to be honest. But especially second half, I actually thought we were really brave [on the ball]. And I don’t think maybe we’ve done that enough this season and that’s on us as players because obviously the manager wants us to do that.

“We were really brave second half, especially with the wind in our face, to keep doing it. Even if there were mistakes made, we were trying to do the right things and that was a massive positive.

“I know we have probably in recent weeks maybe gone longer than we should have but I actually think that’s on the players because we work on it in training every day so it’s got to come from us being brave. We’ve done that today and we need to back it up on the Tuesday [against Leyton Orient in the EFL Trophy] night game but obviously at home against Mansfield on Saturday.

“I want to win every game, of course I do, but conditions wise, the way the game played out I actually think it’s a positive draw, but like I said it’s only a positive draw if we back it up on the, well Tuesday night first and then on the weekend.”

Jones lasted the whole game in Lincolnshire, having made a brief cameo during the defeat against Crawley Town at The Valley on Tuesday.

He added: “It felt amazing. The conditions didn’t help, I would have liked a little bit easier conditions to come back to, but yeah, it felt great.

“I didn’t actually expect to play 90 minutes, but yeah, managed to get through and came out unscathed, so yeah, real positive for me personally.

“[I feel] alright. Getting up the stairs, I need an escalator, I think. A bit out of breath, but yeah, I feel good.”

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