Glyn Hodges has been working hard with the players to eradicate the errors that led to FA Cup disappointment on Sunday, but our manager was in upbeat mood about the season so far.
Speaking after a training session at Plough Lane today, Glyn talked enthusiastically about the challenges his squad have met during a run of eight matches since 24 October that included just two defeats.
“We set targets before Burton, and we’ve just reviewed that," said Glyn. "It was such a positive slide we presented as we've only had two defeats since. We were sitting there thinking ‘we are not in the third round of the FA Cup’ - it was all doom and gloom. In both of the matches we lost I felt that we deserved something. We have to remain positive and the boys have been terrific.
“Ahead of every season you want to improve and get better. We’ve had a good start to the season, but we have a tough run of games up until Christmas and we just have to keep going. Our players are all fit, and they’ve come through the difficult schedule. There are some tired legs and mentally we are quite tired, but that’s the life of being a footballer and at the sharp end, so we just have to get on with it and keep performing.”
Wimbledon have won the last two matches at home to Peterborough United, on both occasions the Dons winning 1-0, and Glyn knows that his side will have to show plenty of resilience to get the better of a Posh side currently fourth in League One.
“The key to our previous wins (against Peterborough) was showing that bit of resilience," added our manager. "I wouldn’t say we’ve lost our way, but there are things we need to do better, and some of the goals we’ve conceded have shown that. We’ve done a bit of work on that today, we have covered it in the video analysis session. The boys are quite clear and they understand it, so we will have a go again.
“We’ve looked back at Sunday’s game to understand what we did wrong and what we did well. We went 1-0 up and we were quite comfortable, but then the goals we gave away were hard to fathom and hard to recover from. The goals we conceded were really disappointing and we have to do better.”