Defender pleased with defensive progress
Deji Oshilaja believes Wimbledon can take plenty of confidence from Tuesday’s battling point against Southend and reignite their season on Saturday.
On-loan Cardiff defender Oshilaja has been an ever-present since joining Wimbledon in January and his impressive run of form was highlighted on Tuesday when he earned the man of the match award.
The 0-0 draw was certainly not one for the purists, but the 22-year-old defender took great satisfaction from it.
“It was a good point and we can build on it for Saturday,” said Oshilaja. “Last week was disappointing, but we can take something from this and hopefully we can get three points against York. We know we can do it if we play to the best of our ability. We can continue to improve.
“After Saturday’s bad result we dug in well and got the job done. We stuck up for each other and put the graft in against a physical Southend team. In the first half we looked like we were going to score and we dealt with their threat pretty well. I thought we were denied a ‘stonewall penalty’. In the second half they put us under pressure, but we defended really well. Big Dave Winfield was immense and we helped each other at the back.”
Neal Ardley’s men have conceded just one goal in their last three games and Oshilaja added that defending as a unit is the key.
“We are defending well as a team,” he added. “We are there to back each other and if one of us makes a mistake then another player is there to help out. We will all improve together by doing this and that is how we are going about it.
“The whole back four played well to be fair (against Southend) and I thought that Joe McDonnell was amazing on his full debut.”