It's an unforgiving league says boss
admitted that Wimbledon produced a poor performance against Accrington Stanley today and that his players have slipped well below the standards they set earlier this season.Neal Ardley
, Neal said that his side lacked confidence on the ball and failed to learn from previous setbacks.Dons PlayerSpeaking to
“It was a disappointing 90 minutes,” said Neal. “This is an unforgiving league and if your levels drop then you are going to struggle. The biggest thing is that the boys were edgy and low on confidence throughout the game. That is the expectation of people thinking that we should win the game, but we believed that ourselves. It was a poor performance in the first-half, in particular, and we were out of sorts. It was a slow tempo, lethargic display and we showed a lack of intelligence in our play.
“When we did turn and stretch them then we caused them problems, but we stopped doing it. We played passes that were going nowhere. We tried to get the information onto them to play quicker and get the ball out wide, but they did not do it. The players were fragile, their confidence levels dropped, and the crowd were rightly not happy with the performance. The players did not respond to that well.”
Neal added that the Dons are now going through a real sticky spell after such a bright start to the season.
“I have said previously that we are still a work in progress and we are going to be inconsistent,” he said. “It does not make me any less frustrated or disappointed with that performance. At least we kept going and we got something from the game, which is the only positive that we can take from it.”
Dons Player subscribers can watch the video interview with Neal Ardley on our premium site and we will tomorrow feature the thoughts of Michael Smith.