Views of first-team coach ahead of Mansfield
Simon Bassey says the prospect of securing AFC Wimbledon’s highest place finish since promotion in 2011 provides a big incentive to finish 2014/15 strongly.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s Sky Bet League 2 match at Mansfield, Wimbedon’s first-team coach says the squad are eager to finish this season strongly after the disappointment of defeat at Exeter.
“We want to do better every year and that is something we really focus on,” Simon told Dons Player. “Everyone was upset and rightly disappointed after Saturday, but if someone had said to us before the start of the season that we would have 49 points with 10 games to play I think we would have taken that.
“We want to finish the season strongly and accumulate as many points as we can. We will try to get to 60 points and see where that takes us. We have held a meeting with the players and looked at the video from Saturday. We expect a different performance on Tuesday and for the rest of this season. There are just seven weeks until the end of the season so we cannot afford to dwell on things. We need to move on and get a positive result in the next game.”
and eight points ahead of the relegation zone.thThat comes tonight at the One Call Stadium against a Mansfield side who beat the Dons 2-1 in the reverse fixture in December. Despite, a 1-0 defeat at home to Bury on Saturday, manager Adam Murray has guided the Stags to 19
Wimbledon go there without the suspended Dannie Bulman, but Simon Bassey believes the Dons have enough strength in depth to cope.
“We have no fresh injury worries after Saturday,” confirmed Simon. “We just have a suspension to deal with. It is a blow to lose Dannie, but it gives someone else a chance to stake a claim for the position. We have a good enough squad here now to get back on track.
“History tells you that Mansfield are a big, strong team. I know Adam and he is a good guy. I think he is trying to change things as he goes, but whether he has done that as quickly as he would have liked is another matter. We will find that out, but they certainly have a big back four and powerful lads up front. We will have to combat that.”
The full update from Simon Bassey is on Dons Player, along with an interview with Dave Winfield.