Mark Robinson was pleased with the standard of football his side produced at Arsenal, but disappointed with the lack of attacking thrust at the Emirates Stadium.
The Dons held plenty of sway in the possession stakes, particularly in the first-half, but clear-cut chances were rare.
Speaking after the 3-0 defeat, Robbo said: “There were some good moments from us when there didn’t look to be a big gap between the two sides, but we didn’t make them uncomfortable enough. In the first-half when we had some good situations the crossing wasn’t good enough – we didn’t beat the first man. We didn’t make enough of those situations. We kept the ball well, but there wasn’t enough purpose behind what we did. I felt that we needed to carry a bit more threat in behind. We needed to try and win a bit more in their final third, so that we could play higher up the pitch, so I have mixed feelings really.
“They were always going to finish strongly, but for 60-65 minutes we were looking all right. I just felt we were starting to look a bit tired, so that’s why you bring on the fresh legs, but it didn’t have the impact I wanted it to have, so I need to look at that. Then they got the two goals, which makes it look worse than it possibly was.”
Our Head Coach praised goalkeeper Nik Tzanev and our defenders for limiting Arsenal’s chance creation with the visitors only sealing victory in the latter stages.
“Nik played well, and I felt there were some really good performances. I thought that Ant and Woody in midfield were outstanding, and I thought our two centre backs were also outstanding. I felt that Nesta recovered well from the penalty, and Henry did well.
"Ayoub had some fantastic moments in the second-half when he got through, but it all didn’t come to enough in those key areas. It’s just a little disappointing that we didn’t give our tremendous support a little bit more to be excited about. It was just a shame we couldn’t have given them a bit more in the final third, but there were moments in the first-half when we passed the ball well above our level against a Premier League outfit.”
Pic: Matt Redman, Pro Sports Images.
Click on the link below to listen to Rob Cornell’s full post-match interview.