Reaction from the Wimbledon manager
has challenged Wimbledon’s players to learn from today’s defeat against a Chesterfield side that he admitted were “the benchmark” for his improving side.Neal Ardley
, the Wimbledon manager was far from downbeat about the 2-0 defeat at the Proact Stadium against Paul Cook’s League 2 leaders.Dons PlayerSpeaking to
“It gives us a clear idea of where we are and that is the important thing for us to take from the game,” said Neal Ardley. “We could have gone in at half-time, made some changes, and ensured that we were hard to break down. But we had a chat with the players on Tuesday and we wanted to have a go and see where we were. I think we have seen what the benchmark is today. They have a very good team and it showed that we are short in certain areas and need to raise our games.
in the first-half and those moments change games. I know that they had chances before they scored, but if we had gone 1-0 up it would have been something to cling onto. We can have no complaints though because the best team won. I have challenged the players by saying to them that next time we have to ensure that there is not as much of a gap between the two sides.”Michael Smith“Last time we played at Chesterfield I don’t think we had a shot at goal, but today we could have had five goals. Their goalkeeper made a brilliant double save from
Wimbledon take on another one of the promotion contenders next Saturday with the visit of Burton Albion to the Cherry Red Records Stadium and Neal Ardley says they will be doing everything to bounce back.
“It is about how we react now and it showed areas that we need to improve in,” Neal added. “We have got another tough one next week, but I have said to the boys that if we have two or three defeats on the trot then that is when it’s really tough to bounce back. We will try to ensure that we have a good week in training so that we can try and bounce back and hopefully go on another run.”
Dons Player subscribers can watch the full video interview with Neal Ardley on our premium site and we will tomorrow feature the thoughts of Andy Frampton.