Manager's verdict on Accrington defeat
Neal Ardley said that defeat at Accrington Stanley was harsh on his side after a second-half performance that he felt deserved a point.
Speaking to Dons Player, the Wimbledon manager said: “It’s tough to take that we are going home with nothing. It was another long journey for the fans after Carlisle and we wanted to give them something to shout about. We had looked free-flowing recently and capable of scoring goals, but we’d been conceding some bad ones.
“We worked hard all week on that because you cannot defend sloppily at Accrington otherwise you will get punished. We wanted to make sure that we started with that. The boys carried that out to the letter; I spoke to James Shea afterwards and he said that he never had a shot to save before they scored late on. That is a hard thing for the lads to take.
“We created some decent chances in the second-half; Matt Tubbs had two or three and we also hit the crossbar. We got better in the second-half and we should have got more from the game. I thought it was a worst case scenario of us taking a point.”
Wimbledon started with two academy products in their side at Accrington and Neal Ardley praised the contributions of 19-year-old Tom Beere and Ben Harrison, who made his league debut at the age of 17.
“There are positives to take from today,” added Neal. “It was a tough place for them to come in, but they did not let us down and I thought they were outstanding. It’s great for their football education. They can bring a lot of things and they’ve already showed that they can do a job for me. We are proud of them and we will look after them throughout the season.”
Dons Player subscribers can watch the full video interview with Neal Ardley and the thoughts of Ben Harrison on our premium channel tomorrow.