Charlton Athletic rise in enticing new predicted League One table but Barnsley and Huddersfield Town drop

Charlton Athletic made it five games unbeaten in League One and just one defeat in 12 under Nathan Jones with a 1-0 win over Crawley Town on Tuesday night.

The Addicks have put together a startling run of form just at the right time to become real play-off contenders in a tightly-packed third tier. Charlton Athletic sit fourth in the division as it stands, five points off Wycombe Wanderers in 2nd and the automatic promotion spots. Jones’ side are now also five points ahead of seventh-placed Huddersfield Town with 10 games left to play.

Speaking after beating Crawley Town, Jones told CharltonTV: “I’m really delighted. This was a tricky game. I’d have taken any win tonight because this was our game in hand.

Nathan Jones celebrates ‘tricky’ Charlton Athletic win

“You always want a performance, you want to be fluent, you want to be dominant but realistically it was all about the win tonight. It’s a tough place to come, the pitch, the tight ground, the way they play – they have a lot of attacking players – clever, little players that can hurt you if you are not at it. It was a tricky fixture and I’d have taken any win. To win 1-0, to keep a clean sheet, to get the goal when we did – I’d have liked us to convert our chances a little bit more, but I’ll take the win.”

At the start of the month, LondonWorld looked at how the stats experts at Opta predicted the League One table to play out. At that time, the Addicks were just clinging on to a play-off space in sixth but now the table has shuffled in positive reading for Charlton Athletic supporters. Here’s the current Opta predicted table, with the change in points since the start of March marked in parenthesis.

Predicted League One table

1. Birmingham City, 105 points (-1)
2. Wycombe Wanderers, 87 points
3. Wrexham, 83 points (+2)
4. Charlton Athletic, 79 points (+3, previously 6th)
5. Stockport County, 77 points (-1, previously 4th)
6. Bolton Wanderers, 77 points (+3, previously 7th)
7. Huddersfield Town, 74 points (-4, previously 5th)
8. Reading, 74 points (+1)
9. Leyton Orient, 68 points (-4)
10. Blackpool, 67 points (+2, previously 11th)
11. Barnsley, 66 points (-3, previously 10th)
12. Lincoln City, 60 points
13. Stevenage, 59 points
14. Rotherham United, 59 points (+1)
15. Wigan Athletic, 58 points
16. Exeter City, 57 points (+3)
17. Peterborough United, 53 points (previously 18th)
18. Northampton Town, 53 points (+3, previously 19th)
19. Bristol Rovers, 52 points (+3, previously 20th)
20. Mansfield Town, 52 points (-1, previously 17th)
21. Burton Albion, 43 points (-2)
22. Crawley Town, 40 points (-3)
23. Cambridge United, 40 points (-2)
24. Shrewsbury Town, 38 points (-1)