Wally Downes said the performances of substitutes in recent games has given him a selection poser for the League One match at Southend United on Saturday.
The Dons go to Roots Hall on the back of a run of four wins in six league games and two victories on the bounce, but Dylan Connolly (pictured), Shane McLoughlin, and James Hanson have all made key contributions after coming off the bench.
Speaking during an interview for iFollow, Wally said: “The last two games are gone and it’s all about winning the next game. Every match poses you different problems and it’s about how you adapt and adjust to those problems. It’s a bit of a quandary: Do you change a winning team that has kept three clean sheets or do you freshen it up with the players who came on and did so well the other night? That’s a part of my job that I will have to mull over during the next 24 hours. You have to upset some and keep others happy, it’s the difficult part of the job. Whenever the substitutes have come on recently, they’ve done well for me. The players are more results-driven than you realise. It’s the results and clean sheets that give them pleasure. It’s not always the performances that give them pleasure, they are results-driven human beings.”
Wally reported that Deji Oshilaja returned to training today after a foot injury, but tomorrow could come too soon for him. Though Kwesi Appiah and Rod McDonald have made progress, they are not deemed ready to be in the squad.
“Everyone is fit out of the players involved the other night. Deji was back out with us today, but Kwesi is having some tests done on his hamstring. Rod McDonald is fit, but probably not ready to be involved in the game, so he is going to be doing a couple of physical days over the weekend. Then he will train with us with a view to playing next Saturday.”
Our manager expects to come up against a Southend side with a point to prove after recent defeats and Chris Powell is a man he knows well from their time together at Crystal Palace.
“The place (Southend) has changed I’d imagine since I used to go down there. I’ve only seen it on the videos that I’ve been watching of the games, but Chris Powell, who is one of the players I had when I was at Crystal Palace, is in charge and he gets them playing the right way. They’ve not had a successful couple of games and he will be looking to turn me over, that’s for sure.”
The interview with Wally is available to watch by clicking on the link to our iFollow channel above. Look out 50 seconds in for a funny moment with Wally!