Wally Downes says that another big FA Cup tie provides a welcome distraction from the ‘grind’ of a marathon league season and he believes the supporters can lift the team once again.
Speaking during an interview for iFollow, Wally views this last-16 tie in stark contrast to the challenge of taking on West Ham, but he is looking forward to it.
“It’s a different chance to the one we had against West Ham. With West Ham, everyone was looking at the game thinking, ‘It could be a giant-killing. If West Ham turn up with the wrong attitude at a smaller ground, there’s every chance, if Wimbledon play well, that they can turn them over'. This time my team-talk will not involve saying that the other team’s attitude could be bad. I know full well that Millwall’s attitude will be spot-on. They will be organised, effective, and they know what they are doing as a team. The giant-killing side of it and hoping for a bad attitude from the opposition isn’t something I will be mentioning at all during the team talk.
“For want of a better word, the season is a grind as it’s Saturday, Tuesday games and there are some bad performances. When we’ve not played well it’s been difficult for our fans to respond to us because we’ve been on some bad runs. The fans can look forward to this, enjoy the build-up to it, and seeing the club on TV. Having bought their tickets early, they can see the prize at the other end of it. On the back of the West Ham game, it’s a brilliant match and I’m sure the 4,000 that we have here will raise the roof.”
Wally confirmed that Kwesi Appiah (hamstring) are James Hanson (groin) are both ruled out, but Terell Thomas has recovered from a bout of illness to be in contention. Steve Seddon is cup tied for tomorrow’s match.
Our manager added that Wimbledon go into Saturday’s match on the back of the most complete performance since he took over in early December.
“I would say it was the most consistent performance since I’ve been here and that includes the West Ham game,” said Wally. “In that match we exploited the fact that they were not at their best and there was a euphoria about the place. We played really well. In the game against Walsall we defended well and we played well going forward. Against West Ham we could have defended better. Against Walsall we defended well and we were gritty, but we also played some good stuff. Tuesday night was a good night for us to put things together.”
The full interview with Wally is available to watch on iFollow and interview will follow later this afternoon with Anthony Wordsworth and Scott Wagstaff.