Manager talks to Dons Player ahead of Accy
Neal Ardley will check on the fitness of James Shea before announcing his squad for the trip to Accrington Stanley tomorrow night.
Wimbledon’s number one (pictured) is struggling to shake-off a groin injury and is therefore doubtful.
Neal Ardley also confirmed that Andy Barcham was due to have a scan this afternoon after the winger suffered a knee injury against Morecambe on Saturday.
Speaking during a pre-match interview with Rob Cornell for Dons Player, Neal said that a quick chance to make amends after the disappointment of Saturday might be just what his side needs.
“When you have a result like Saturday and you feel the way we felt over the weekend, a game on a Tuesday night can be a good thing,” Neal said. “Hopefully, it will get it out of our system. I could have gone in ranting and raving after the game on Saturday, I think everyone was really down as you would expect. But we are going to spend a lot of time in each other’s company this week and we have two really tough games coming up. I took the decision to discuss it today after I had watched the game back. I wanted to make sure I had looked through it again and confirmed everything.
“We have done most of our stuff today and it’s about putting it to bed. It’s not something that has happened every week. It has probably happened once a season during my tenure when we have got something badly wrong. I know that there is a lot of hurt, upset and disappointment from the fans, but believe you me the staff and players feel the same. That sick feeling in our stomachs is not going to go until 7.45 pm tomorrow night.”
Neal added that his squad will have to perform to their maximum against an Accrington side currently in the League 2 play-off zone after giving leaders Plymouth a fright last time out.
“I have watched their last two or three games and they are very good,” Neal added. “In my opinion they played Plymouth off the park and should have won 3-1. I had to agree with the Accrington manager’s comments afterwards. They were also very solid throughout the rest of their team. They were brilliant and if they play like that we will have to be at our absolute best.
“I have watched our game back from Saturday and it was a strange one. Morecambe never put a cross in all game. They had five attempts on goal that were on target, and scored all five. Credit to them because they were ruthless. We had the lion’s share of possession in both halves, but Morecambe got everyone back behind the ball. We moved the ball around well, but it was hard to break them down, even though we still scored two goals.
minute when they scored their fourth on the break the boys were giving everything. It was 3-2, we were trying to get one back, but the fourth goal knocked the stuffing out of us. In the last 10 minutes we lost our way a bit.”th“Where we let ourselves down was that for the first time this season we were all open at the back and we got punished for it. It’s a tough one to take, but up until the 80
The full interview with Neal Ardley is now on Dons Player.