Harry Forrester was relieved to make a positive contribution for his new club with a vital goal on Saturday – and he hopes it can spark renewed confidence among the squad.
The on-loan Rangers midfielder joined AFC Wimbledon short on match fitness, but his match-winner at Northampton was a step in the right direction, and also a big boost for the Dons.
"There is a lot of relief for me to be honest with you," said Harry. "It has been a long time since I started games and I have been working hard behind the scenes on my fitness. I got about 70 minutes (against Northampton) and fitness-wise I feel fitter and stronger. I am still trying to get my match sharpness back now and to get a goal can only give me confidence. Hopefully, it can also give everyone confidence that we are good enough to win games of football.
"Sometimes when you pick up the papers on a Sunday after you've lost, it is all doom and gloom, but it should not always be like that. We had been playing well, but we had not taken our chances. In this game we only had one or two chances, but we've come away with the three points and everybody is happy. We have to build on that now and stay confident for the coming games. It can change quickly in football and we have a week now when we can try to push on. Everyone will be feeling a bit more confident going into Tuesday's game."
Speaking to Rob Cornell in an interview for iFollow, Harry added that he was delighted to reward the 507 travelling Dons supporters with a victory on Saturday.
"It was not pretty football, but we did a job on the day and winning is all that counts," said Harry. "We said at half-time that the game was there to be won for us. You could see that they were suffering from a lack of confidence and nothing else but a win would have been acceptable. We huffed and puffed all game, but we just managed to edge it. To get the winner in front of our fans was a great feeling and the main thing was to get the three points."
Extended highlights from Saturday's game, plus interviews with Harry and Neal Ardley, are on our iFollow channel.