Johnnie Jackson wants Charlton job after masterminding victory at Sunderland

Posted Sunday, October 24, 2021 by PA

Johnnie Jackson has confirmed his desire to manage Charlton on a permanent basis after leading the Addicks to a 1-0 win at Sunderland.

Jackson was appointed caretaker boss on Thursday following the dismissal of Nigel Adkins, with the club languishing in the League One relegation zone.

The 39-year-old made more than 250 appearances for Charlton during his playing career, and would love the opportunity to lead the team on a long-term basis.

He has certainly made a decent fist of things so far, with Jayden Stockley’s second-half header having inflicted Sunderland’s first home defeat of the season.

Jackson said: “I’ve made no secret of it – my ambition is to manage, and for a long time it has been to manage this football club.

“I was lucky enough to have been a player, and captained the team. I’m been a coach now, and I have managerial ambitions. It’s certainly always been a dream of mine to lead Charlton.”

Given his players only had two days to digest the news of Adkins’ departure and attempt to enact a new game-plan on Wearside, Jackson was delighted with their response.

He said: “I’m really pleased. To come away with the three points is brilliant. It’s a tough place to come – they’re a good side in good form, with a great home record. To come away with a positive result would have been good, but to get all three points is a great day for us.

“I can’t speak highly enough of the players. They’ve been magnificent. We’ve obviously had a bit of a mad week with Nigel leaving on Thursday. We only really had a day to work on what I asked of them, and try to implement some new ideas, and they took it on board really quickly.

“They implemented exactly what I wanted from them, and to do that in a day and come here and get a result, I can’t ask any more of them than that.”

Lee Johnson was unhappy with the performance of referee Darren Drysdale, claiming that Charlton’s matchwinner Stockley should have been sent off for what the Sunderland boss described as a first-half head-butt on Tom Flanagan.

Johnson said: “Jayden Stockley won’t be available for the next three games because he’s head-butted Tom Flanagan flush in the face. That will have to go to the FA.

“It’s an absolute stonewall red card, and he’s then gone on to score the goal so that’s part of the decision making. There’s eight sets of eyes who should be able to see that but, for whatever reason, they haven’t.

“I didn’t feel we deserved to lose the game. Did we deserve to win it? Maybe not.

“If we’d come in 0-0, 1-1, I think that would have been a fair result. There were some key decisions that went against us today, which were unbelievable really.”