Experienced defender on lifting the Dons
Warren Cummings hopes his previous experience of relegation battles with Bournemouth will prove to be an asset during Wimbledon’s scrap to beat the drop.
The 32-year-old was named club captain by Terry Brown shortly after signing last summer and there may have been a change of manager since then, but Neal Ardley shares the same appreciation of Warren’s contribution both on and off the field.
Certainly, Warren gained first-hand knowledge during the 2008/09 season of just what is required to come through adversity with AFC Bournemouth having just survived relegation from the Football League after they were placed in administration.
Speaking to Rob Cornell on Dons Player, Warren said: “We had battles against relegation when I was at Bournemouth, which we fortunately managed to get out of. The most important thing for us down near the wrong end of the table is that our togetherness as a squad needs to be spot-on. It has taken a little while for us with the change of manager, but hopefully the fans are beginning to see that we are pulling together now. We have a squad of players that want to do well and as long as we continue to do that then we should be fine during the rest of this season.”
Warren added that team spirit is particularly important now with the Dons still in the bottom two and with the games piling up after the postponement of tomorrow’s trip to Accrington Stanley.
“The morale in the camp is of huge importance,” he added. “Especially when you are a team which has not got as many positive results as you would have liked. It is part of my job description, along with the other senior players, to keep everyone’s spirits high. It is important to keep the consistency among the lads, both on the pitch and off it, to take us forward. We are going to need the whole squad during the rest of the season because we have 20 games left to play in just over three months. We are going to pick up injuries and suspensions and we need as many players as possible with match experience available to us.”
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