Wimbledon boss after Morecambe defeat
Neal Ardley admitted his side had not given Wimbledon’s fans enough to shout about at home this season after today’s Morecambe defeat – and he will be working hard to rectify that for 2014/15.
Wimbledon signed off their home campaign on a low note with a 3-0 loss against Morecambe and Neal was very disappointed with the manner of defeat.
Speaking to Dons Player, Neal Ardley said: “It’s a flat ending to a season and it sums up our whole campaign. I know what we have to address and we have to do better next season. We will start getting to work on that. I desperately wanted us to go out on a high today. We tried to play attacking and really go for it with three centre forwards and Chris Arthur at left-back. We’ve not given the fans enough at home this season.
“It’s been a really strange week. I’ve known our current situation for a number of weeks and it’s drained me trying to get us over the line. Plymouth was a massive day for us to get the points and a good performance. Maybe I underestimated how much that affected the players because they looked a bit drained in the second-half.”
Neal gave credit to Morecambe for a display that sealed their League 2 survival, but he added that he won’t tolerate a repeat performance from his side at Accrington Stanley next Saturday.
“For 30 minutes it looked like Morecambe were hanging on and if we got one goal it would be a case of how many, but we did not take our chances,” added Neal. “That put pressure on us and we conceded two absolute car crash goals. That killed the game. We thought that we could mount a comeback in the second-half, but I think the players tried too hard. We could not do anything and we had no quality, but credit to Morecambe because they saw the game out really well and I congratulate them for staying up.
“I’ve told the players that they have to be ready for a tough week. I will not tolerate another limp performance like that. We’ll go to Accrington and try and win the game. We’ll put everything into it and I expect a good performance. I will leave the players in no uncertain terms about that.”
Dons Player subscribers can now watch the video interview with Neal Ardley on our premium channel.