Wally Downes said there is confidence among the squad that they can mount a real push to stay up after today’s victory against Doncaster Rovers.
During his interview for iFollow, our manager was asked for his message to the supporters and he gave an emphatic response.
“Come down and get with us,” said Wally. “There is a belief in the team that we can achieve something this year. Clearly, it’s not winning the FA Cup, and it’s not promotion, but there is a target for us and a goal for us, and we are determined to achieve that. That’s the target. Get on the bus and come on the ride with us.
“We had said about having cup finals left, so it’s about putting today’s win to bed now. We will review it on Monday and try to take it into Tuesday. It’s a great win today and they’ve got to enjoy it, but it’s back to work tomorrow and on Monday.
“I’m pleased that the players got the win because I think they deserved it. We didn’t see it out as perhaps a more experienced team may have done. To go and get the second goal and kill it off was terrific for them.”
Our manager was pleased with the resilience shown during the first-half when Doncaster exerted pressure.
“We want to be in the game,” added Wally. “We’ve had a couple of games when we’ve been behind early and with the team in a lowly position that’s demoralising for the fans. That can spread and the players feel they are up against it, so the longer we stay in games, the more chance we have of winning them. I don’t mind giving up some possession at home, as long as we’re compact and we’re capable of hitting teams on the break.
“It takes four or five minutes after a sending off to realise how they are going to play and where your best opportunities are going to be, but it was similar to how it was when they had 11 men. We had been looking to get our wing backs into play in the middle third of the pitch and the sending off just thwarted Doncaster slightly. We had three men marking one at the back and it was important that we were able to get one of our centre halves on the ball again. We dominated the one striker that they had up front.”
The picture above (taken by Matt Redman, Pro Sports Images) shows Shane McLoughlin celebrating his first Wimbledon goal.
The full interview with Wally is available by clicking on the link to our iFollow channel above. Watch out at the end of the interview for Wally's unique celebration!