Johnnie Jackson pulled no punches in his assessment of AFC Wimbledon’s 5-2 defeat to Mansfield Town – with the red card incident in particular irking our manager.
All in all, it was a game in which our side showed both positives and negatives in terms of performance – with the obvious high of Josh Davison’s well-taken brace being quickly extinguished by the loss of a 2-0 lead and Chris Gunter’s dismissal.
The gaffer offered his thoughts on the key incidents and attempted to make some sense of how we managed to end the first-half with a man less.
“It’s been a difficult evening," said Johnnie. "We started so well by scoring two really good goals. They’re a good side. They were always going to react after going behind. At 2-2, we just wanted to get in at half-time but obviously the sending off changed the whole complexion of the game. From then on, it became more difficult and we conceded more goals, which was disappointing.
“It doesn’t sit well with me to be honest. My player is on the floor having made a good tackle and then he gets the ball kicked in his face. It’s a natural instinct to react. I don’t think there was anything too malicious in that reaction. Their guy went down as if he had been shot. That’s football, but I don’t like that element of it.”
Wimbledon headed in at half-time level with our hosts at 2-2, offering a small glimmer of hope that something could be salvaged from the game in the second period.
However, any attempts to stay in the match were quickly undone as Mansfield took the lead and ended up piling on the misery.
“We had to withdraw (Nathan) Young-Coombes who did very well in the first-half. We tried to contain them and stay solid. But we conceded a couple of poor goals, one from a set piece, which is disappointing because it’s nothing to do with the overload of players.
“I told them to just try and stay in the game. We knew that we could hopefully get a sniff but the fourth goal was a killer. At 4-2, we looked to save some legs for Saturday because a lot of the lads had to put in a really tough shift. Our squad is going to be tested now as we are light in certain areas. That’s something that we need to look at.”
Lastly our manager saluted the 294 Wimbledon fans who made the long journey north in tough conditions on a Tuesday night, with our loyal supporters making their voices heard from start to finish.
“The support was unbelievable. It was generous applause for the players at the end and they got behind the boys all night. I want to thank them so much for that.”
PICS: Paul Thompson (Pro Sports Images)