Manager praises players and fans
Neal Ardley felt his AFC Wimbledon side deserved to come away from Leyton Orient with all three points this afternoon.
The manager was speaking to Dons Player, after Bayo Akinfenwa’s fifth goal of the season earned a point from a 1-1 draw at the Matchroom Stadium.
“We totally deserved all three points,” said Neal. “I think for the first 25 minutes they were a bit more ‘snappier’ than us. They’ve won too many individual battles and they’ve won a couple of aerial battles on the diagonal balls and they’ve taken the one good chance they’ve had (Jay Simpson’s opening goal for Leyton Orient after ten minutes).”
“After 25 minutes, we made a slight tweak as we played three up front and changed from a 4-4-2 and from that moment on we were the better team. We came out second half and were in the ascendency and were by far the livelier team.”
“I can’t fault the boys, they kept going, the fans were unbelievable today as they willed everything on as they could see two full-backs playing as wingers and we ended up with four strikers in the box, but it’s so difficult when the opposition put six or seven players across a line and the only way to get through them is to go down the sides.
“A couple didn’t drop for us, the goalkeeper has made what can only be described as a world class save, but we’ve got the goal in the end. We’ve had headers over, blocked shots and I’m proud of them.”
“We were good on Tuesday (against Dagenham & Redbridge) we’re a far better team than them and we should have won comfortably and we should have done today, but we’re disappointed we’ve only got one point from two games because we should have had six.”
Dons Player subscribers can see more reaction from Neal Ardley, along with the thoughts of Bayo Akinfenwa.