Dons manager on a dramatic victory
Neal Ardley praised his side’s never-say-die attitude after Wimbledon struck a decisive injury-time goal for the second successive week.
Speaking to Dons Player after Jack Midson’s dramatic winner in a 4-3 victory, Neal said: “We spoke yesterday and I am no psychologist but I understand what makes footballers anxious and nervous. We talked about what might happen if we are down and what we would do. We had to stay together and that includes the staff because it’s a test for us too.
“We cannot lose our heads and we stayed positive and tried to push the players on even when we were 2-0 down. That’s the positive in that we came through adversity. The players kept going and kept going and the statistics show that. We put in 30 crosses and had 17 attempts on goal. We tried to get the crowd up and give them what they wanted and that paid off.”
Neal added that hard work on the training ground had paid off after the Dons finally ended their barren run that had seen them score just one goal in four home matches before today’s win.
“We knew that we needed goals at home and we’ve worked all week on the statistics; on getting more crosses in and having more attempts on goal. Then 40 minutes in you are questioning what you’ve been working on. But we stayed really positive and at half-time we were telling the players how we could get back into the game. We decided to go with three out and out forwards during the second-half and that paid off.
“We have a tough week ahead, a big week and that’s a perfect start to it. But we need to get ourselves right and go again for Tuesday.”
Dons Player subscribers can now watch the full video interview on our premium site and interviews with Jack Midson, Danny Hylton and Jake Nicholson will follow over the weekend.