Left-back Ben Purrington gets a constant reminder of what he’s fighting for every time he steps into the Wimbledon dressing room.
Ben was an unused substitute for Plymouth in the 2016 Play-Off Final against the Dons and although he’s been made not to forget about it, he now uses it as motivation as the Dons go in search of much needed points at Blackpool tomorrow.
“There’s a little picture above my peg of Luke McCormack letting in a goal at Wembley!” said Ben in an interview with our iFollow Dons Premium channel. “It’s not ideal, but I’ve moved on and I’m here now and I want Wimbledon to do the best we can.
“It benefitted me, in a weird way, that they did beat Plymouth and went up and got to go and play in a higher league. It’s one of those things; it’s good for the club. It’s a fans’ club. They get close and you get a proper feel for it. I could tell that from the moment I got here. There’s a lot of history to it and it’s a really good club to get to know.
“It’ll be a tough game as Blackpool always set up well. They’ve always got a strong team. We prepare for every game as if it’s going to be a tough game – which it is. We’ll set up and hopefully get something from it.”
You can see the full interview with Ben Purrington via the link above to our iFollow Dons video platform.
Ben and his Wimbledon team mates will be aiming to improve on their second-half showing against leaders Portsmouth last Saturday, when the Dons mounted a second-half fight back.
“This week we’ve been working hard, same as always like we do, but just trying to implement a few more things into our style of play,” said Ben.”Just getting the principles right of how we want to play.
“Not too much has changed in training. Obviously, we’ve been working on a few different things that we tried to implement in the second-half against Portsmouth when we played pretty well and put them under pressure. It definitely showed as we got a goal back, but it was too late as we couldn’t quite get a second.
“In terms of getting our ‘swagger’ back, the main thing is to get results, which then does breed confidence. In and around the training ground you can do enough to stay positive, but on the pitch is the main thing. You pick up a few results and you just feel it naturally and it develops.
“You then put your heads up and your chest comes out and your shoulders go back. You start to feel more confident in yourself. The gaffer is not trying to change what we’ve done, we were playing really good football and hopefully we can just keep going and the results will come.”