Post-match reaction from the Wimbledon boss
Neal Ardley says that Wimbledon’s players have to start taking responsibility for his side’s lack of goals after the defeat against 10-man Dagenham & Redbridge.
The Dons have scored just once since the last meeting with Daggers on 26 November and with Michael Smith now on his way back to Charlton, Neal knows such a lack of cutting edge has to change.
Speaking to Dons Player, Neal said: “We dominated large spells of the match, but we did not do enough to score. Our finishing and decision making was not good enough. We are trying to get good attacking options onto the pitch and get at teams and the fact that we attacked Dagenham for long spells shows that. We got into good areas, but we have not tested their goalkeeper enough and we have to take a bit more responsibility for that.
“It is not happening for us at the moment. We need to work on it, but we haven’t really got enough time with the games coming thick and fast. But we need to keep the faith. I will keep sending the team out positively to try and get the goals that we need to get the momentum moving the other way.”
One positive on the day for Wimbledon was Harry Pell’s return with the midfielder replacing George Francomb, who departed with a calf injury.
Neal added: “We have a lot of our big players back now after a spell when we had to do without them, but we have to start getting results. I don’t feel that we are playing like a bad team and we are doing a lot of good stuff, but we need to pick ourselves up and not feel sorry for ourselves.”
Dons Player subscribers can watch the full video interview with Neal Ardley later on today.