Post-match reaction after victory against Rochdale
Neal Ardley said it was a pleasure to watch the attacking pair of Andy Barcham and Lyle Taylor after they helped the Dons to victory against Rochdale.
goal of the season and Barcham won the penalty that Dean Parrett converted to put Wimbledon three-up.thTaylor struck his 14
Speaking during his post-match interview for Dons Player, Neal Ardley said: “Lyle and ‘Barchy’ were a constant threat all night. They were on the move all the time with their energy and I love seeing them when they play like that. It was great that Lyle got his goal, but I cannot believe that he gave up the penalty! I am delighted for him. I made a judgement call to bring the front three off. They are fast-twitch fibre players who get fatigued in the last 20 minutes of games. It is a big pitch we are playing on this Saturday and it gives me the option to throw them in again if I want to.
“In the first 15-20 minutes of the second-half the players did exactly what we asked of them. We did not want them to mess around or over-play. We wanted them to go at Rochdale, try and score some goals, and that’s what they did.”
Neal felt that it was an entertaining game to watch and Wimbledon had beaten a good team on the night.
“I thought the tempo was really good in the first-half and it was a very open game,” added Neal. “Credit to Rochdale as they are a very good team. Keith Hill’s teams don’t sit back, they go for you all the time. In the first-half they caused us problems and we caused them problems. Obviously, the sending off made a difference. When you’ve been booked, you cannot go in for a challenge like that and I think the referee got it just about right.
“We tried to play too gung-ho in the first-half. We tried to press high at times and we got caught as we had big spaces between our midfield and our full-backs. That caused us a problem, but we addressed that in the last 15 minutes of the first-half and we came into it. We took our chances in the second-half.”
Sean Kelly set Wimbledon on the way to victory against Rochdale and Neal has been delighted with his improvement since he moved south of the border last summer.
“I thought Sean was excellent,” said Neal. “When he came down from Scotland it was all new to him and we did not expect to throw him straight in, but then Jon Meades got injured. If you look at how much Sean has come on this season, he has really adjusted to League One football. I think he has done a great job and I am really pleased for him.”
During the full interview with WDON’s Rob Cornell, Neal also talked about building for next season and handing young Alfie Egan an opportunity. Visit Dons Player via the link above for the full interview.