An update from Neal Ardley ahead of game at City
Wimbledon will be without centre-back Andy Frampton for the JPT tie at Bristol City tomorrow night after he suffered an ankle injury on Saturday.
Frampton (pictured) went over on the same ankle that he fractured in the summer and Neal Ardley said that Wimbledon’s medical team should discover the extent of the damage later this week. Midfielder Tom Beere is also unlikely to feature after struggling to shake off illness.
Speaking to Rob Cornell during an interview for Dons Player, Neal Ardley said: “At first we feared the worst for Andy because it was the same ankle that he injured before. He is a lot easier on it today so we will monitor that and have a look on Thursday. If we feel the news is not good then we may need to reinforce. Alan Bennett came in on Saturday and he did really well, in particular when he managed to help James Shea out after his double save to stop York scoring.
“Tom was ill on Saturday and that’s why we only had six substitutes. We had been considering bringing Tom in for tomorrow’s game because we’ve been delighted with him lately. I just think it’s a tough ask against a good team when we might spend a considerable bit of time without the ball. I don’t want to bring a substitute on after an hour because Tom has run out of steam.”
The Dons will be outsiders tomorrow as they face a Bristol City side currently top of League One, but Neal says his team will not be going there just to defend.
“It’s going to be really tough,” added Neal. “I’m a big believer that when you come up against a team that are better than you in terms of league status and form then you need to have a plan. On the day the players must execute this plan well. We did that in the last round, but we have drawn the best team in the competition away from home. They are taking it seriously because it’s a chance for them to get to Wembley and we will need to be at it.
We must defend well all over the pitch, but we will not set-up just to defend. I think that they are good enough to break us down. Sometimes you look at it and think that you may be able to pack areas of the pitch and stay in the game, but I watched them recently and they attack from a lot of different angles. “We will need to have that bit of luck and take our chances when they come our way.
“They’re not a team that just pass the ball in front of you. I decided last week after watching them that we cannot just go there and sit back. We need to do our jobs well, but also carry a threat if we can. I don’t want to have regrets afterwards that we did not have a go at it.”
Dons Player subscribers can now watch the full video interview with Neal Ardley and an interview with captain Alan Bennett will follow later.