wind and torrential rain couldn't dampen the spirits of 2,500 Charlton fans at Swindon on Saturday as they saw their side tighten their grip on a play-off spot.

Steve Jones, recalled to the starting line-up because of an ankle injury to Mark Bright, struck the only goal of the game 10 minutes from time.

He made no mistake when Ty Gooden failed to clear Clive Mendonca's flick just inside the Swindon half. Jones raced clear to slot the ball past the advancing Fraser Digby for the striker's sixth goal of the season.

With John Robinson out for the rest of the season with a broken leg, following last week's match against Nottingham Forest, it had begun to look as if the Addicks might settle for a point against a mid-table home side who had managed only seven League goals since Christmas.

First-half conditions were atrocious and after 14 minutes a mistake by Danny Mills allowed Town veteran Mark Walters space on the left wing, but instead of looking for a team mate in the box he chose to shoot at Sasa Ilic.

A neat passing movement ended with Shaun Newton putting Mendonca away on the right, but the leading scorer's shot went into the side netting.

Then a great diagonal ball from Mortimer put Jones clear in a similar position and this time it took Digby to divert his low shot round the post.

The corner was cleared only as far as Mark Bowen on the left flank, and his long-range effort was re-routed at the last minute by Eddie Youds, but the alert Digby made a fine close-range stop.

Swindon's fans and players thought they should have had a penalty when Walters went down heavily under Mills' challenge, but the Addicks escaped unpenalised.

Charlton stepped up the pressure after half-time, but Digby kept out a string of efforts.

Then on 79 minutes Newton's pace allowed him to race on to an impossible ball through the middle, but the winger was forced wide by the covering defence and could not get his shot on target.

It didn't matter because a minute later the home side undid their good work by presenting the grateful Jones with the opportunity to score the winner.

Manager Alan Curbishley said afterwards: "That was an excellent performance. We never looked in any danger."

l Charlton are at home to Reading on Good Friday (kick-off 1pm).

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