Post-match reaction after Morecambe win
Neal Ardley said that hard work on the training pitch had paid off after Wimbledon kept their second successive clean sheet to defy Morecambe today.
The Dons rounded off an impressive week with a resilient second-half performance that earned a narrow 1-0 win and delighted Neal Ardley.
Speaking to Dons Player, the Wimbledon manager said: “I’m chuffed because we showed a lot of resilience. We dropped a little bit deeper near the end to defend what we had, but I cannot remember them opening us up too many times. There are lots of different ways to win games in League 2 and we’ve chosen a different way than Tuesday.
“We worked before the Accrington game on our defensive mentality after conceding four goals at Carlisle. We then defended resiliently at Accrington apart from one slip-up and we’ve limited Burton and Morecambe to few chances. At the same time, we’ve had a really good threat going forward. Hard work on the training pitch has paid off, but it’s also a mentality that we’ve tried to create and the boys have grasped that. If we continue to do that then we will be a force to be reckoned with.”
Ade Azeez earned the man of the match award after he marked his first league start for Wimbledon with a swashbuckling performance and Neal Ardley believes he will only get better.
“Ade is my little project at the moment and I’ve done quite a lot of work with him,” added Neal. “He’s a work in progress and I stated that at the start of this season because I didn’t want people to judge him straight away. He’s an unbelievable athlete, he has lightning pace and it’s just a case of getting him to utilise those strengths. He still has stuff to work on, but he is a great outlet and the Morecambe defenders hated having to chase him down the channels.”
Dons Player subscribers can watch the full video interview with Neal Ardley on our premium channel and an interview with captain Alan Bennett will follow tomorrow.