Watford victory sets new year standard for Valley ace (From News Shopper)

Watford victory sets new year standard for Valley ace

12:16pm Wednesday 2nd January 2013 in Charlton Athletic By George Jones

CHARLTON skipper Johnnie Jackson insists he and his team-mates have started 2013 in the way they intend to continue.

New Year’s Day saw the Addicks win their first league game in seven outings as they beat Watford 4-3 at Vicarage Road.

After a poor start to the Christmas fixtures, Charlton ended the festive period with four points from three matches and Jackson admitted Tuesday was the perfect start to the new year.

“At the turn of the year we said we wanted a clean slate and to start in the right way and we’ve done that,” said the captain.

“We’re well pleased, we were in a hotel the night before and away from our families but this makes it all worthwhile when you get a victory.

“We go again on Saturday in the FA Cup.

“There’s a few wounded players in the dressing room.

“Lawrie Wilson has broken his nose and Leon Cort had to come off with a knock at the end.

“We’ll regroup on Thursday to see who is fit and who we can roll out there for the next game.

“That is the nature of the festive period, but it’s a good way to start the new year.”

The match itself was incident packed.

Charlton trailed, led and then found themselves behind again before fighting back to win.

It was also the third successive away game the Addicks had fallen behind in after starting well, although Tuesday’s match was the first time they had managed to force a reply.

Skipper Jackson was quick to highlight the character of his squad, conceding they will always work hard for one another.

He said: “We’ve got the right personnel in the dressing room, everybody wants to work hard and you need to do that in this league.

“We did on Saturday against Derby but couldn’t quite hang onto a win, but we all mucked in and it was a massive effort from the boys.

“To do it again three days later is excellent.

“Everyone played their part and that’s the beauty of the squad we’ve got - everyone is willing to muck in.”

Jackson added: “It was an incredible game, end-to-end, open.

“Watching it must have been quite a spectacle.

“Playing in it was good fun but a bit of a heart stopper at times.

“To win by the odd goal from seven is fantastic “They scored the opener a little against the run of play.

“We were quite comfortable and had settled into the game. We continued to do that and got ourselves back in it and then in front before half-time.

“We felt we were well worth a lead and maybe even a two-goal lead.

“We went in in front and then came out and it all went a bit wonky for about 20 minutes.

“But I think scoring our third so soon after they had gone in front was key because it gave us a chance again when our heads may have gone down, but they didn’t and we bounced straight back.

“The winning goal was against my former team and I was well due a goal.

“I hadn’t scored for a while, so to score the winner in front of the away fans made it a special day.”

Follow us on Twitter @NewsShopperSprt