Dons boss far from happy with first-half performance
Neal Ardley took no consolation from Wimbledon’s second-half fightback at Cheltenham today and said his side’s defending was simply not good enough.
Despite pushing promotion-chasers Cheltenham all the way after substitute Brennan Dickenson pulled one back, the Wimbledon manager was far from happy with his side’s defending that left them with too much work to do at Whaddon Road.
“There are no excuses as we conceded from a set-piece and that is something we have not done for a long time,” he said. “That is something we have worked hard on eradicating and we have to get that out of our systems. It was a poor start and a spirited finish from us, but you cannot just start a match in the second-half.
“I did not think we really got going until an hour into the game, which was disappointing. We knew what they were going to be about and I thought we did not really lay a glove on them for large parts. We should not have been 2-0 down in the first place and I thought that they were two bad goals that we conceded today.”
With no midweek league game coming up, the Wimbledon manager hopes his players will be able to recharge their batteries with a crucial game at home to York City next Saturday coming up.
“We have to get the boys back into shape and get them ready to go again,” he added. “We need to get the players back to what they are good at and that was not it today. In my opinion during our recent good run we have defended as a team, but we were quite poor in those areas. Away from home in this league you need to defend well as a team, but we did not do that today.”
Dons Player subscribers can watch a full video interview with Neal Ardley later today.