Nathan Jones hails Charlie Kelman’s display for Charlton on return from injury

Nathan Jones praised the clinical finishing of Charlie Kelman after his goal earned Charlton a 1-0 home win against Oxford.

The summer signing from QPR had sat out the previous seven Championship matches with a hamstring tear but scored 17 minutes after being brought on in the second half.

Charlton have now opened up an eight-point gap on the bottom three after recording their first league victory since November 4, and Jones felt they were worthy of the spoils.

“It’s a massive result and it was deserved,” said the Charlton manager.

“We should have been ahead earlier. We didn’t demonstrate the clinical killer instinct in the first half.

“It’s the perfect return for Charlie. He was playing through injury. It was a tendon injury which wasn’t picked up, so he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

“That has healed now and he’s looked like a different animal the last two or three weeks in training.

“It was a wonderful finish. We paid a lot of money for him by our terms. We love him. He is fantastic around the place.

“I was pleased with the level of performance. It was a nervy game with a nervy atmosphere and you could tell early on that we needed to get to grips with it.

“We didn’t play anywhere near the levels we can play but we still should’ve been ahead at half-time. We had some glorious chances.

“We needed to turn the screw, be a bit braver and keep doing the basics well because they put it in your box at every opportunity. We grew into the game, were in the ascendancy and then made really positive changes.”

The match marked one year as Oxford manager for Gary Rowett, whose side are winless in four and sit in the bottom three.

Travelling fans sang negative chants about the quality of Oxford’s football, prompting Rowett to defend his side.

“It is a difficult defeat to take,” he said. “It felt like a pretty even game. I didn’t think Charlton were better than us but I also don’t think we were better than them.

“One moment of quality for the goal and we couldn’t find that, we sort of huffed and puffed a little bit.

“It was standard for our last 10 games, apart from Ipswich, where most of the games could go either way and the majority are going against us, which is the frustrating bit.

“I can understand the crowd’s frustration but it is not particularly helpful in the moment. I don’t necessarily think being personal helps. I get that they are disappointed we’re not winning games.

“We’ve got a really honest group that clearly needs a bit of help in January. We have got to stick together.”