New loan signing is proud to wear the badge
Dave Winfield came through a baptism of fire at League 2 leaders Shrewsbury and the towering defender says that playing for Wimbledon is a “fantastic” opportunity to reignite his career.
The 26-year-old (pictured) has had a 2014/15 season interrupted by injury at York City, but now he is determined to show the defensive qualities that convinced Neal Ardley to bring him to the club on loan.
Winfield, a player who the manager previously tracked last summer, was drafted in late last Thursday to answer the call for defensive reinforcements at his former club Shrewsbury and he could make his home debut for Wimbledon against Luton tomorrow.
Having spent a number of years playing for Aldershot Town and Wycombe Wanderers, Winfield spoke enthusiastically to Dons Player about playing for a fans-owned club.
I pride myself on doing things the right way and to be as good a professional as I can be. I want to try and get us into the highest position possible in the table. “It’s fantastic to come and play for a club like this at this time in my career,” Winfield told WDON commentator Rob Cornell. “I know people who live quite local and I’ve heard that it is a proud club – I totally understand that. I want to play football again and to play for a club with such heritage is what I want to do.
“I only met the rest of the squad late last Thursday and then travelled up to Shrewsbury on the Friday, but they are a good group of lads and I was made to feel welcome. In my view Shrewsbury are the strongest side in this division, but I enjoyed it. The boys worked their socks off, but unfortunately we did not get the result.”
Winfield was impressed by the performance of his defensive partner Deji Oshilaja at Shrewsbury – and he knows they will have to be at their best tomorrow to contain promotion-chasers Luton.
“Deji has pace to burn and his positional play was good,” added Winfield. “He’s strong in the air for his size too. With games together the communication and organisation will come. Luton are another good team from what I’ve seen. They are very strong and effective at what they do, but we will do everything we can to combat that.”
The full interview with Dave Winfield appeared on Dons Player yesterday, along with a six-minute update from Neal Ardley.