27-05-2025
Former Blues defender leads Charlton to promotion via play-offs
NATHAN Jones was left with a mixture of relief, delight and pride after leading Charlton back into the Championship but stressed the Addicks' success was the culmination of everyone's efforts at the club.
Macaulay Gillesphey scored the only goal of the League One play-off final against Leyton Orient at Wembley that saw Charlton return to the second tier after a five-year absence.
Gillesphey curled home a superb free-kick in the 31st minute to seal a 1-0 victory over their London rivals, to the delight of around 40,000 Charlton fans in a crowd of 76,193.
Former Southend United left-back Jones, who took charge of Charlton in February 2024, said: 'It's a massive relief, the euphoria and masses of pride.
'We've given it to a club that was going backwards and we had to arrest that before we could take it forward.
'It's not just the results that have got us to the Championship, it's the way we've done it. How we built and galvanised the football club and got everyone back to believing that Charlton can be a great club again. Because it is a great club with great people throughout.
'I'm just so proud of the football club, everyone, the fans. We had 44 or 45,000 fans here. The owners were here today, they bought a shell of a club and now they are seeing something totally different.
'You cannot quantify the amount of work that has gone on. Every single sleepless night, phone calls on holiday, the number of times I've slept at the training ground and my family have had to sacrifice not seeing me.
'The players have worked incredibly hard, they've had to sacrifice a lot, they had to put up with me demanding and demanding and that's not easy at times.'
