Dons boss on injury-time sickener
Neal Ardley pulled no punches with his assessment of Wimbledon’s performance after they allowed Bury to snatch all three points in injury-time today.
The Dons had dominated for long spells, but Neal took no consolation from his side’s improved second-half display.
Speaking to Dons Player, the Wimbledon manager said: “We have to score goals. We’ve worked all week on trying to get into positions and creating a team that can score goals and we certainly got bodies forward. I cannot put it in the back of the net for them and you just have to keep working with them and hope it turns. I cannot praise the players for being on the front foot for 75-80 minutes because we didn’t score the goal we needed.
“I’m not happy at the moment. We’ve lost 1-0 at home in a game that we should be looking to win. If we had got a point I would have been disappointed, but I would have taken it on the back of the performance. We’ve thrown it away and it’s really tough to take.”
Neal added that the Dons paid the price for failing to learn their lessons after Bury had squandered late opportunities before their winner.
“During the last 15 minutes we lost concentration twice,” Neal added. “They got in one-on-one and hit the bar, but we did not learn from the first one and they went on and scored. It’s frustrating because we worked incredibly hard on the performance and we got it for large parts of the game. The game is about both ends though. We lost concentration at one end and we did not do enough to put ourselves in front at the other end.”
Neal Ardley’s post-match reaction is now available on Dons Player and reaction from Harry Pell will follow tomorrow.