Wally Downes has spoken about the difficult task of leaving players out of his starting line-up during the all-important run-in.
The Dons head into Saturday’s match at home to Accrington Stanley aiming to extend an impressive sequence of six wins out of nine games and with the manager having a full squad to choose from. Indeed, Deji Oshilaja and Kwesi Appiah are pushing for more game-time after shaking off foot and hamstring injuries respectively.
“It’s not an easy part of my job, but they are professionals and if you tell them straight to their face it’s the best policy,” said Wally. “They have been in situations when they’ve been in the team and they are happy that someone else isn’t, so it’s pointless dressing it up. If you are playing, get on with it, and if you are sub then make sure you are prepared. If you are not in the squad, make sure you are in the dressing room being supportive. Be ready to play when you are asked.
“We haven’t been able to get the game-time into Kwesi and Deji, but we organised a game at the training ground during the week and both of them came through it very well.”
Wimbledon’s last home game against Gillingham ended in defeat, but the manager was far from unhappy with the overall display and he is hoping his players can put on a show for the fans on Saturday.
“We want to excite the fans and it’s our job to excite them. It’s their job to support us so if we both do our jobs hopefully we will get the right result. I thought our performance for the first half hour against Gillingham was terrific. Michael Folivi had a point-blank header saved, we scored, we hit the post, and the game could have been different. I was pleased with the performance and the fact that we kept going as we got a goal in injury time. Gillingham are a very experienced team and when they got their noses in front they knew how to manage the game. Our inexperience showed. I was not happy to lose the game, but there were a lot of positives to take from it.”
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