CHARLTON skipper Johnnie Jackson has hailed his team’s achievement as their first season back in the Championship drew to a close.

The Addicks signed off with a fine 4-1 victory over already relegated Bristol City at The Valley on Saturday and captain Jackson was quick to hail the triumphant campaign.

He revealed: “I think we can say this season has been a success.

“We’ve got a top 10 finish, it’s had its ups and downs along the way but if you had offered us ninth place from the start, we’d have taken that.

“But for one or two results, who knows?

“We might have ended up in the play-offs, but we had a good go at it in the end and we can all be proud of what we achieved.”

Jackson added: “The first few months we were finding our feet in this league and getting that belief that we could compete.

“We realised we were a match for anyone on our day when we beat Cardiff who have gone on to win the league.

News Shopper: Jackson celebrates

“That day we realised that if we do play as well as we can, we can beat anyone on the day and so it has proved.

“We’ve got some good results against some of the top sides.

“We’ve finished above some sides which have come down from the Premier League and highest out of the teams who came up, so there are a lot of positives to take.”

With Charlton finishing the season as the league’s top form side, unbeaten in eight games and just three points off a play-off position, the midfielder agreed it was impossible not to ponder what could have been.

Jackson explained: “Our form has been so strong and you do look back and think ‘what if?’

“You look at the two Birmingham games, the Sheffield Wednesday game when we were cruising and ended up losing, but I’m sure most sides could look back through their season and say they should’ve won this or that.

“We are where we are and probably where we deserve to be.

“To be the ninth best in the division is nothing to be sniffed at, so we can be pleased with that.”

After a lacklustre first half, Charlton came alive after the interval as Yann Kermorgant turned on the style to produce a fine individual performance.

His powerful first time volley from Mark Gower’s cross had The Valley faithful on their feet two minutes after the restart and will surely be considered goal of the season.

The striker grabbed a second four minutes later with a powerful far post header before a defensive error allowed Bobby Reid to pull one back for Bristol City.

Kermorgant would come agonisingly close to completing a sublime hat-trick as he saw his chip come back off the bar and into the path of Spurs loanee Jonathan Obika to head in the third.

News Shopper: Jackson in action against Bristol City

Perhaps the only man in the stadium who did not want to see the Frenchman’s effort creep under the bar was Jackson himself.

The captain would go on to finish the scoring and notch up his 12th goal of the season, drawing level at the top of the scorers chart with Kermorgant.

And Jackson admitted there was some friendly rivalry going into the final game of the season.

He said: “You would have seen there was a bit of competition and banter going on during the game.

“Obviously Yann got his two and I won't dress it up, I was desperate to score!

“Pritchard managed to lay one on a plate for me and my last bit of energy took my legs forward to get on the end of it and tuck it away.

“It was probably my least important goal of the season but maybe the one I enjoyed the most.”

Despite the rivalry on the day, Jackson was eager to praise his fellow top scorers’ impressive performance.

“Yann was top draw, he was fired up today,” the skipper added.

“He knew about the top scorer thing and he wanted it - two great goals and nearly a third with the chip, unbelievable skill really.

“On his day he is unplayable and was certainly today.”

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