Jones made five changes to his side for the trip to Teesside, with one eye on Saturday’s trip to Oxford United coming hot on the heels of the long trip north.
“We have to use the squad,” he said.
“The front two gave us massive distances, so we knew we needed to change those, so having four strikers is key.
“Secondly, Lloyd [Jones] was on nine bookings, Kayne [Ramsay] had a hamstring complaint and hasn’t trained all week since Saturday, so he was touch and go.
“And then we thought that if we change two, we should change three to give them the best chance to be fully fit and free of bookings for the weekend.
“Amari’i has done big distances and has picked up injuries when we’ve overloaded him. With the three we went with, Keenan was the gamble in that because he’s young and hasn’t played many games, but he performed superbly and then we replaced Lloydy with Conor Coady and Belly [Amari’i Bell] with Macca [Macaulay Gillesphey] which doesn’t weaken us, it’s just different.”
With nine games to go, Jones insisted that he’s very much looking up as he looks to secure as a high a finish as he can and for his side to not just survive, but thrive.
“We never take anything for granted, we want to finish as high as we can,” he said.
“We’ve got nine games to go – if we pick up the points per game that we have this season, we should finish in a healthy position.
“Our goal is not to just survive. We haven’t come into this league just to survive, we’ve come into this league to finish as high as we can so we can build.
“We have a timeframe for what we want to do and we’re bang on that. This year, yes, the first priority is to make sure we’re in the league, but we want to finish as high as we can.”
Meanwhile, Jones reserved praise for the travelling Addicks supporters whose dedication for making the 500-mile was rewarded.
“They need their heads tested travelling up here on a Wednesday night!” joked Jones.
“They were absolutely wonderful. I’m proud of the club and I’m proud of them. To follow us up here, I don’t think you can get any further north in this league, and to do it on a Wednesday with the games coming up is truly remarkable.
“Do I expect it from them? Yes, I do now because that’s the group of supporters we have.”