Wally Downes felt that today’s performance at Sunderland offered hope that AFC Wimbledon can string together a winning run in the battle to stay up.
Speaking during his post-match interview for iFollow, Wally said: “We kept going right until the very end. It’s a difficult place to come. I said to the boys that it’s a kick in the teeth to not come away with something, but we must take this performance forward into our next batch of games.
“Teams that have pulled away from us have had runs of three or four wins. There is no reason why we can’t get three or four wins in the next month. Other teams are not going to be showing that sort of form. Once we get one win, I think we’ve got the ability and determination to go and win two or three.
“The opportunities were there for us in the first half but we did not take them. If you don’t take your chances it’s going to let you down. We keep making more and more, but our chance to scoring ratio isn’t great. That’s obvious from the amount of goals that we have scored. Hopefully, that will turn for us and we can start putting away the simple chances we are missing.
“Sunderland have got the financial clout to get in top players. Aiden McGeady may be a bit older than when he was playing in the Scottish Premiership, but there are bits of magic in players like him and he punished us today.”
Our manager saluted the support his team received from the 898 travelling Dons and he felt Wimbledon should have had a penalty for a challenge on Scott Wagstaff near the end.
“Initially I thought Scott had been tripped, but there wasn’t contact in that respect. Players don’t lose their balance like that when they are through on goal. Scott said their guy pulled his arm and that’s what has put him off balance. The referee said he didn’t see the tackle, but he clearly hasn’t seen the guy pulling his arm back. For me, it’s a penalty.
“The fans were brilliant. It’s the first time they’ve come here and I’d like to think the players showed enough grit and determination to not let them down. They worked as hard as they could, tried to play when they could. If Sunderland win their games in hand they are a top-of-the-table side. I think we were more than a match for them.”
Click on the link above for the full interview with Wally.