Dons boss far from happy after Exeter display
Neal Ardley admitted that Wimbledon’s performance at Exeter City last night was unforgivable and his players will be forced to sit through a video nasty of the display tomorrow.
The Dons boss accepted his side produced their worst performance since he was appointed as manager three weeks ago in the 2-0 defeat by Exeter.
He said: “You can forgive certain parts of bad performances, but what you cannot forgive are performances when the opposition are more dynamic, more energetic and generally want it more. I have told the players this in no uncertain terms. If we are going to put in consistent performances and rise up the table, then we have to get the absolute basics right. There has to be hard work and desire, apart from quality and the rest of the things that you need, but there was none of those things last night. At the top end we were not dynamic and at the other end their two centre forwards caused us problems all night. Whatever you do in between those areas, you are going to be struggling if that’s the case.”
Neal Ardley added that the debuts of loan signings Jonathan Meades and Jake Reeves at least offered a couple of positives.
“I thought that Jonathan at left-back was our best player and Jake showed good quality on the ball, I think he will be a good addition,” he added. “Steven Gregory also did okay, but there were very few positives. I have already watched the video of last night’s match and I have a pad full of notes. The players will have to go through what I went through today and they will be watching the video tomorrow.”
Wimbledon had just six substitutes last night due to the absence of Charlie Strutton, who fell ill with a virus on the day of the match.