Wally Downes believes that Wimbledon’s three new additions will provide a timely boost, as Wimbledon seek a first victory of the season on Saturday.
Following last night’s 2-0 loss in the Leasing.com Trophy versus Brighton, Wally spoke to us about the team’s performance, integrating new signings into the group, and Dylan Connolly’s loan move.
Marcus Forss (pictured above with Bayzo and Scott Wagstaff at the training ground), Max Sanders, and Ryan Delaney could all be in contention for our away match on Saturday.
Wally said: “We’ve got to integrate them now. That will give us a boost to our squad. It will increase the intensity of our training and they’ve got a good chance to get into the side. I’m hoping all three will be pushing for places. We are a young squad and they are young players. I want a vibrant young team going forward and hopefully they can push to get into the side. If they don’t get into the side, they can increase the pressure and get better performances out of the players they are pushing who are in the team.”
On last night’s loss, Wally said: “We had chances galore in the first-half, but we didn’t put them away, and we had chances in the second-half. On chances created, we probably had more than them. Their goalkeeper was busier than ours. They were easier on the eye than we were, but you expect that from players at a Premier League club. Although they are young, they are quality players, and they were a lot more comfortable on the ball than we were. We brought our youngsters on and they had a go as well.
“I was very disappointed with the two goals that we gave away. With 15 minutes to go, before they got the second one, I was thinking ‘we are still in this and it’s a poor goal that we had given away to give them the upper hand’. I’m very disappointed that we were beaten 2-0, but sometimes you can’t account for goals that you give away.
“I said to our players before the game that it was a cup competition and if you want to be getting into the first-team then ‘here’s your opportunity’. They are not a group that won’t be involved, I think every one of them had been on the bench so far. They are, as far as I’m concerned, the first-team squad, and the opportunity was there for them to impress me. Some of them did and some of them didn’t.”
Asked about Dylan Connolly’s loan move to Bradford City, Wally said: “It’s unfortunate for Dylan with the way that we play at the moment. We play with three centre-backs and there is no real width in a 4-4-2. Dylan is going to be a big part of us going forward and instead of him wasting his time on the bench and perhaps getting him on for 20-25 minutes in a desperate situation, let’s get him out playing. He is a great asset for us. Let’s get him more game-time out there in a division below. Let’s see how good he can be and he can come back and be on fire for us.”
Take a look at Rob Cornell’s full interview with Wally below.