Preview of Saturday's home match
has demanded more from his players in an effort to get back to winning ways against Burton Albion tomorrow.Neal Ardley
Though AFC Wimbledon emerged with plaudits for the manner of their attacking football in the defeat at League 2 leaders Chesterfield, the Wimbledon manager said it was not a good performance at the Proact Stadium and he has called for improvement.
Speaking to Dons Player, Neal said; “The boys have worked hard this week after I had words with them. Always when you are trying to bounce back from a defeat the training has to be good; I have demanded a high tempo from them and they have done that. All we can ask from them is that the performance levels are high on Saturday.
“It is easy to say that the opposition are good when you beat them. I would much rather they (Chesterfield) were moaning and groaning because we had beaten them and they were not happy. I have watched the match back and we did not play well. No team has probably created as many chances to score at their place this season and that shows we did something right, but we could have done better.
“Having looked back at the match we were poor because we did not pass the ball well or defend well. We have shown the players key statistics that we look for in all the games. The statistics do not lie and when we have been the better team in terms of the statistics this season we have won the game. We have to make sure that we get back to our performances being fluid so that the statistics are more in our favour and we have a better chance of winning.”
(hip) will step-up their training early next week, but both are not yet ready for a return.Will Antwi (hamstring) and Kevin Sainte-LuceNeal Ardley said that the Dons have no fresh injury worries heading into tomorrow’s match. It is expected that both
place. However, Neal Ardley is expecting a very tough match against Gary Rowett’s men.thLast season’s play-off semi-finalists Burton are expected to be vying for promotion once again during this campaign, but they are currently two points below the Dons in 10
“There are no easy games in this league,” added Neal. “You can easily go on a three or four match losing run or win three on the trot. If you look at the problems they will cause us, then you can set your team up so that the players are aware of that or you can set-up to do the things that we are good at. Our players though have to go out and perform to a high level and if they do that then Burton will have to be very good to get something from the game.”
For match arrangements and ticket information on the Burton match, published earlier on the official website, click on Match Details .-
- Dons Player subscribers can watch the full video interview with Neal Ardley on our premium site, along with the thoughts of Harry Cooksley on signing a professional contract with Wimbledon.