Nathan Jones says he’s not concentrating on the League One table for now despite Charlton Athletic sitting second
Nathan Jones says that he’s not paying attention to the League One table at this moment time – despite his Charlton Athletic side sitting in second after Saturday’s 1-0 win at Shrewsbury.
The South Londoners have played one more match than most after turning down the chance to postpone last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Rotherham due to international call ups.
With four wins from six and just one defeat, the Addicks only trail table toppers Wrexham on goal difference ahead of the Welsh outfit’s trip to Birmingham City on Monday evening. But 13 points from six games is well on course for the points-per-game mark any promotion hopeful would need to achieve.
Jones says he’s only concentrating on the targets he has set for his side for now – and not how they are shaping up in comparison to the rest of the division.
“All we can do is what we can do,” explained the Charlton manager.
“It doesn’t matter where we are, who is above us or what people do around us. We have a set of goals, a set of targets that we need to do. We are on target at this point in time and that is all that we can do.
“It doesn’t matter where we are right now. What matters is in 39 games time where you are, going into that final game. Right now, we’re in a position where we want to be and nowhere near the team we want to be. It’s a start but we won’t get carried away.”
Saturday’s shutout at Shrewsbury made it four clean sheets from six – just one fewer than the five that the Addicks kept throughout the entirety of last season’s league campaign.
Jones is delighted with the base his side has manufactured to build upon – whilst accepting there is still room for improvement in the performances.
He added: “Unless you are Man City or Barcelona you can’t just go and outscore teams all the time, you need that bedrock. We’re showing that we are very difficult to beat, first and foremost.
“What I want us to do is become more fluent. We’ve worked all week on being fluent and moving the ball well. We didn’t do that well enough first-half. That’s the thing we have to address. I want us to get better doing that.
“We can’t just rely on clean sheets. I want us to evolve into a team. Sometimes that takes time. But to go from the team that was 19th in League One to the team where we are now, it’s a building process.”
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