Charlton Athletic midfielder Johnnie Jackson writes for the KM Group
Published: 08:00, 07 November 2013
Updated: 14:31, 07 November 2013
It was great to make my comeback last Saturday at Birmingham and after working so hard on my fitness, it was important to me that I played a part.
For me, personally, I wanted to keep the team’s form going because you don’t want to come back into the side that loses – especially as captain.
You certainly don’t want to feel like you’ve upset how it was going and thankfully, the lads made it easy for me.
I was certainly feeling it after the game but it was worth it to be part of such a good away win.
We could have gone in leading at half-time easily. We had a couple of good chances in the first half and Darren Randolph, the Birmingham goalkeeper, made a good save from one of my headers.
We certainly felt we were in the ascendency and that if we kept going, a goal would come – which it did.
I was pleased to be involved in the build-up as well because we’d been talking about following in shots and gambling on opportunities in training.
I knew Cameron Stewart was cutting in and I thought I would gamble because the keeper might spill it, which he did.
Although he managed to parry my follow-up, luckily it bounced into Dale’s path and he did the rest.
It’s no secret that we had a slow start but we’re feeling like we’re getting into gear now.
We were shipping too many goals but it’s seven-plus hours now without conceding which is fantastic whatever standard you play at.
There aren’t many sides in the Championship who are going to do that so it gives you a great chance to put a consistent run together, which is the key to being successful.
We got into the dressing room at Birmingham last Saturday had a look at the table thinking we might have sprung up somewhere and we were still 17th which was slightly frustrating.
So back-to-back wins has to be the next target – three points at home against Leeds this weekend and it will be interesting to see where it takes us.