New striker Mchael Folivi is determined to reward Wimbledon fans with more goals in our bid for survival, after a landmark strike.
The Watford loanee notched his first goal for the Dons on Saturday – his first Football League goal - and today marks the 21st birthday of the young forward.
“The fans need to understand how much they are the 12th man,” said Michael. “The fans singing my name gave me a confidence boost. It gave me a buzz as the adrenaline levels go up. We just need them to stay behind us.
“Being a striker and scoring that goal, it's hard to describe the feeling! Now that I’ve got it, I need to push on for many more of those and just try and get us out of where we are now. I’m loving the Dons fans right now! It started on twitter during the week, but when you hear them chanting your name, that’s the biggest buzz. Having scored my goal, I need to give them more moments like that to be chanting my name for longer! I need to kick on now.”
Michael has confidence in his ability at such a young age to be in the right place at the right time, as he proved on Saturday when he gave us the lead before the break.
“You have to get in the right positions as a striker and for set-pieces usually I’m in the right places, in around the box. I understood that Terell was going to knock it across and hopefully, if I’m in the right position, I get my goal. It’s coming together, playing up top with Joe (Pigott). We’ve got a few tall players in the squad. I’ve just got to implement my game – I can’t grow any bigger!
“I have to turn the opposition players, keep them running towards their goal and keep causing them problems. They (Charlton) didn’t like that. I’m learning weekly and I’m starting to play with a bit more confidence. I’ve just got to turn more of these opportunities into more goals now and take more chances.”
Although Michael is still learning his trade, he thinks our battle to retain League One status could go down to the wire.
“You can just see us fighting to the end. ‘Pigs’ (Joe Pigott) getting that goal so late at Rochdale, takes a lot of character. It gave us the right platform for Charlton. I can’t tell you how much I’m hurting though! I got my first goal and it doesn’t cancel out the emotion of that, but it would have meant so much more if we had gone on and taken a point or three from the game.
“All we can do after it is video analysis and move on. We need to understand more about how much it means to keep the ball out of the net in the 90th minute and take that point that we had. I could see the hurt in the boys in the changing room afterwards, but they’ve held their hands up. Shrewsbury on Saturday is a six-pointer.”
You can see a clip of Michael's interview after he scored his first goal for Wimbledon below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.