Seconds before Charlton secured a place in the League One playoff final Nathan Jones, a born-again Christian, dropped to his knees, clasped his palms and prayed. The fourth official had just told him the game was up, the final whistle imminent. Jones got to his feet, looked to the skies and covered his face. Then, at full time, he crumpled into a shell, face down in the turf of his technical area. The footage went viral.
“People close to me said it was a bit over the top,” he says. “I was just in the moment. It wasn’t fabricated, it wasn’t because the TV cameras were there, because I didn’t realise they were. I wouldn’t say it was an out-of-body experience, but it was an outpouring of emotion, a deflation of all the pressures.”
