Team news and the views of Neal Ardley
Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley will make late decisions once again before selecting his starting line-up for tomorrow night’s home match against Plymouth Argyle.
Gary Alexander (pictured) and Jonathan Meades both came off with ankle injuries at Dagenham on Saturday and the influential pair will be assessed tomorrow as regards their fitness. Curtis Osano is not yet ready to return to the squad and the same applies to fellow defender Will Antwi.
Club physio Mike Rayner has also confirmed that young full-back Jim Fenlon could be out for up to a month with a back injury that he suffered in training last week.
Despite having a far from fully fit squad, Wimbledon have been strong enough to put together a three-match unbeaten run that has taken them up to 21st spot in League 2 and Neal Ardley says that the players have done it by showing a real togetherness.
Speaking to Dons Player, the Wimbledon manager said: “It is a tough schedule and prior to Saturday we had one or two players suffering from illness. We have that again and Jonathan and Gary came off on Saturday. There will therefore be late decisions before picking the starting line-up. At this stage of the season you need the whole squad.
“Winning games helps with the mood around the place, but in the build-up to Bradford we had a really positive week in terms of team bonding. At the moment there is a real togetherness and I feel that we will still have that whether we win, lose or draw. We have our jobs to do and targets that we are working towards, but it is a case of same again please after Saturday.”
Neal Ardley is expecting a tough scrap against relegation rivals Plymouth tomorrow night, especially after they pushed Northampton all the way on Saturday.
He has brought in some good players and they have characters in their team. It is not going to be an easy game, we know that. We played well last week at home to Northampton and I think this will be a tougher game than that even. The reports we have had suggest that Plymouth played very well against Northampton and we are going to have to be at it to keep our run going. It will be a game when we have to stay really strong to keep the momentum going that we have built up recently.” “I know John Sheridan from coaching courses and he is a good coach, who likes his teams to get the ball down and pass it,” Neal added. “John will instil confidence in the squad.
Dons Player subscribers can now watch the full video interview with Neal Ardley on our premium site. Watch out later for an update from Mark Robinson about the Under-18s, who earned an excellent 2-1 win at Crawley Town today, and tomorrow we will feature an interview with Pim Balkestein in the build-up to Plymouth Argyle.