Nathan Jones claims he never doubted that he would guide Charlton Athletic to League One safety.
The Addicks’ final home game of the 2023-24 season is against Shrewsbury on Saturday.
Jones’ debut match in command resulted in a 2-0 defeat against Reading in February, but they have now gone 13 games unbeaten.
Charlton are 16th, 11 points ahead of the bottom four.
Manager Jones stated, “I believe we had done it (confirmed safety) after the Barnsley game; it was mathematical because of the permutation of players playing each other. I knew it was done at the time.
“That was the first thing we needed to accomplish. I don’t think we were really under any real pressure once I came in; I was confident we’d get enough points to move on.
“It was a risky position; we had played three more games than everyone else and were only one point ahead of them.
“To be where we are today is a tremendous achievement, and we’re incredibly pleased with the limited number of games that we’ve been able to complete the first step of what was required as a football club.
“I’m frustrated by the number of draws; we’ve been dominant in a lot of games. Not to be disrespectful to anyone, but we were dominant on Saturday, particularly in the first half. At Northampton we were totally dominant. We were dominant against Wigan but just had an eight-minute spell and that can’t happen – because that will cost us next year.
“We should have eight wins and five draws, not the other way around. That can be attributed to a number factors, including mistakes and a failure to maintain clean linens. And we have not been clinical on the other end.
“Even against Exeter, we had a fantastic late chance, and we had a fantastic one-on-one opportunity on Saturday to win the game. Fleetwood surrendered, but Freddie has a one-on-one advantage. We’re being penalized on one end, and teams aren’t having to work as hard to score as we are, while we’re creating good opportunities but failing to take them.
“The aim was to go as far as we could this year without getting into problems, and we did that. So now it’s time to build. We shall do this from now until we return at the beginning of August.”
