By Rob Cornell
Striker Cody McDonald is already looking to kick on from his first league goal for the Dons – starting with the trip to Bristol Rovers this Saturday.
The proven goal scorer has taken a little longer than usual to find the back of the net in a league game for Wimbledon. He finally opened his account against Peterborough and it proved to be an important equaliser too, as the Dons went on to earn a point.
“There was a lot of pressure on me, but I’m quite relaxed about it,” said Cody in an interview to iFollow Dons. “I think everything happens for a reason – not just on the football pitch, but in life in general.”
“It’s happened now and it’s down to me to really kick on. I wouldn’t say I’ve played particularly a lot better than I have been, I’ve been playing okay and the goals haven’t been coming, but maybe that goal will just give me that little bit extra and I’ll push on from there.”
A clip of Cody’s interview is available below, via a link to our official club YouTube channel.
The prolific, former Gillingham marksman had been on target in pre-season and in the Checkatrade Trophy for Wimbledon, but he wasn’t about to turn down an almost open opportunity to notch his first Football League goal for his new club!
“It’s really nice to get off the mark. It was a funny one really, as they are the sort of chances you want in a game. The defenders sort of looked at each other and I wasn’t sure if they were going to go for it! Then it just seemed to really open up for me. Hopefully it’s time for me to really push on now.
“I had an overhead kick in the second half and looking back maybe I could have held the player off and brought it down, but you always look at things in hindsight. A lot of strikers go off instinct and at the time it felt the right thing to do.
“I’ll take confidence from the goal and the lads for the performance.”
With forward Kwesi Appiah not expected back from injury until at least the middle of next month, Cody knows what is expected of him and his team-mates and backs the spirit within the squad to see Wimbledon through.
“There were a lot of positives to take from the Peterborough game and we go on to Saturday now full of confidence - after last Saturday’s win in the FA Cup and now this result too.
“Credit to all the lads – everyone grafted – it was a well-earned point. There’s a lot of characters in that dressing room and these boys won’t give up. We haven’t performed as well as we’d hoped for this season with the quality we’ve got in there, but they’ll keep trying. I think we’ve showed that, even in games we’ve lost, we’ve been really pummelling teams at the end.
"I think that’s all you can ask for – from the manager and the fans – they want to see passion from the lads. There’s no doubt about the commitment, unfortunately sometimes it doesn’t work out, but against Peterborough we had the quality and the stability to do it.”
The full interview with Cody McDonald and the thoughts of manager Neal Ardley are available on our premium iFollow Dons subscription channel.