Midfielder wants away day success
Midfielder Jake Reeves is eager to help AFC Wimbledon quickly make amends, starting with the trip to Mansfield tomorrow.
Manager Neal Ardley said he was “devastated” with Tuesday’s early Johnstone’s Paint Trophy exit, at the hands of Plymouth Argyle, and Reeves is keen to put that behind him as the Dons return to League Two action.
Speaking to Dons Player, Reeves said “If things don’t go your way, you’ve always got the next game coming up fast to put things right. Obviously after Tuesday night’s disappointment we will look to put things right in the league. I know Mansfield are trying to change their style of play slightly, but they’ve still got that physical side to their game.
“We’ve got to stand up to them, especially as it's away from home. We need to be solid and maybe reserved and give the kind of performance we did away at Carlisle, hit them on the counter and stand up and be counted.
“I don’t think we need to panic. We‘ve just got to carry on with what we are doing. Everything Neal Ardley has implemented off the field is right. Everything we do on the field is right, we just need to tweak a couple of things. It’s still early on and if we carry on hopefully those wins will keep coming and we’ll push forward.”
“When you look at last season, we wanted to put our away form right straight away. We’ve got to play our own game and not worry about anyone else, especially away from home where you need that confidence in the squad and we should be good enough to go to away grounds and do that.”
Reeves, ever-present in the Dons midfield during their league campaign this season, praised his partners with Wimbledon forced into changes due to Dannie Bulman picking up a hamstring injury on the trip to Cumbria.
“I’ve formed a good partnership with Dannie, picking up from where we left off last season," added Reeves. "At 36 he’s been there and done it and got experience and you can only learn off a player like that. You always get players picking up knocks in games and Jon Meades can play in a various positions. He’s played well in midfield alongside me and I think it’s very important to have a player like that in the squad.
Reeves also backed his former Bees teammate and on-loan central defender Karleigh Osborne to come good again at the Dons.
played games with him at Brentford when I was a young lad coming up and he was playing first team football regularly and I can tell you now that back then he was quality.” “Karleigh was out of action at Bristol City last season and struggled, but he will just get better and better as the season goes on and he plays more games," said the midfielder. "Obviously, I
The full interview with Jake Reeves and an update from manager Neal Ardley are both available to Dons Player subscribers.