Post-match reaction from the manager
Neal Ardley expressed his disappointment with his side’s performance after the Dons slipped to defeat at Oxford United today.
Though Wimbledon were just 10 minutes away from earning a point at the Kassam Stadium, Neal said that the Dons did not offer enough as an attacking force.
Speaking during an interview for Dons Player, the Wimbledon manager said: “I like to come off and look at the chances we’ve created and how we have cut teams open, but we did not do that today. If we had got a point it would have been a hard-earned one, but at no stage today did I think we were doing enough to win the game.
“That was the disappointing thing. We work hard and we believe that we can do something this season, but these are the sort of games that we need to take that belief into. I don’t think we had quite enough of that. We have quality on the bench and we are all right, but it’s disappointing today. I think our performance levels over the course of the last few weeks have been very good, but we did not do enough.”
Neal made a double change up front in the second-half with Bayo Akinfenwa and Tom Elliott both introduced up front and he felt that gave his side extra momentum.
“It was a fairly even first-half,” Neal added. “We passed it quite well at times, but we lacked a cutting edge. In the second-half we weathered the storm for a 20-minute spell when they hit the bar and we made brave substitutions. We lost Semi and we only had two substitutions left at that point, but we went for two centre forwards and tried to cause them a problem.
“Momentum swung our way a bit towards the last 20 minutes of the game. We were beaten by a good strike that came with bodies running across the keeper. It was kind of disappointing because it was one of those that you look at and you are not quite sure what you could have done about it.”
Neal said that Semi Ajayi suffered a bloody nose in the first-half and it was the right call to take him off as he felt dizzy. The on-loan Cardiff City defender will be assessed early next week.
The full video interview with Neal Ardley will be on Dons Player later on tonight.