Andy Barcham is determined to keep AFC Wimbledon in League One after playing a key role in the club’s rise and he said that the players owe the supporters a big performance on Saturday.
The experienced winger, who returned after injury as a substitute at Doncaster, joined the Dons in 2015 and his first season here ended with promotion at Wembley.
“Something we’ve always said since I joined is that we want to take this club forward and leave it in a better position,” said Andy. “Since I’ve been at this club we’ve been doing that and I want to keep that going. I don’t want to take a backward step, and none of the boys do. We need to maintain that focus, work hard, rally around, show that Wimbledon spirit, and look to steer us away from that situation we are in at the moment.
“I enjoyed every second playing under Neal Ardley. It is never nice to see someone lose their job and for me, probably because I worked here longer with the manager, it’s a real disappointment. As professionals we have to maintain that focus though and look to right the wrongs. We need to concentrate on what we’ve got to do. We have important jobs to do at this club.
“We know this is a massive season for the club. With getting the move to a new stadium we want to be in this league. Everyone is putting in their efforts off the pitch and we need to do our bit to make sure we are where we want to be when we go back home. We understand the frustration, but as fans they are always behind us, and that really does help. Hopefully on Saturday we can give them something to cheer about. They’ve been cheering anyway, which has been great, but it would be nice if we can give them a result to match their levels of getting behind us.”
Andy added that Interim Manager Simon Bassey has been preparing the squad well for the challenge ahead on Saturday at home to Southend United.
“Bass knows what he’s doing, he is a very experienced coach,” said the winger. “He’s been implementing how he wants us to go at the games. There have been times when we’ve played well, but we haven’t got the results, but now it’s all about getting some points on the board. I think that will give us some confidence going forward and that’s what it’s all about. We’ve been working on every aspect of the game, including the performance levels, the stats of the game, what we need to improve upon. There has been a lot of hard work from the coaching staff away from the training pitch and on the training pitch we’ve been working hard to get it right. Saturday is a chance to have a go at that again and hopefully we can get all three points.”
The full interview with Andy Barcham can be viewed by clicking on the link to our iFollow channel above. An interview with Simon Bassey ahead of the Southend match is also on iFollow.