Wimbledon boss pleased with youngsters
praised the impact of Wimbledon’s young players after their performances in the friendlies against Walton Casuals and Sutton yesterday.Neal Ardley
, Neal gave an upbeat assessment about his squad’s pre-season ahead of the trip to Monza and highlighted the progress of four players who only signed professional forms recently.Dons PlayerSpeaking to
was one of the best players on the pitch.Chace Jacquart played out of position at left-back and was excellent and Charlie Fayers also did some great stuff in spells. In the game at Walton Youssouf Bamba was excellent when he came on and Tom Beere“It was great for their experience and they can take a lot away from these games,” said the Wimbledon manager. “They were playing with very good players at both Walton and Sutton and the youngsters have benefited from that. We put together some really good play and they have applied the finishing touches.
“I am really pleased with them, but I am really pleased with all of the squad. The staff have been over the moon with the work ethic shown by the players during the last four weeks and we want to continue that on tour next week.”
, who made his comeback after injury by playing 80 minutes at Sutton.Charlie SheringhamThe Dons head into that tour of Italy with a five-match unbeaten run during pre-season and Neal was particularly impressed yesterday with
“Both games were equally impressive in spells,” Neal added. “A lot of the players were tired with 20 minutes to go and that was good because playing 90 minutes was unknown territory for them in pre-season. We got out-worked by Walton Casuals in the first-half and that was really good in a strange way; it showed that we cannot play good football unless we work as hard as the opposition. In the second-half we totally dominated the game because we raised our tempo, but it was a nice lesson for us.
showed that they had that experience and knowledge at the back.”Will Antwi and Alan Bennett, Andy Frampton, Rhys Weston“We were effective going forward in the second game at Sutton and I thought Charlie Sheringham was excellent with his link-up play. ‘Coxy’ talked to the midfielders at half-time about screening the back players a bit better and they did that really well in the second-half. The clean sheets were pleasing and in and around the box at the back we looked really tight; players such as
was withdrawn due to a dead leg early on at Sutton and he is likely to be back in full training in the next few days.George PorterNeal Ardley confirmed afterwards that new signing
Neal’s full interview featured on Dons Player yesterday and includes an update on Wimbledon’s impending pre-season tour to Italy. Subscribers to our premium site can tomorrow watch a video interview with Barry Fuller and Tom Beere.