Terry Skiverton saluted the focus of our side to stick to the task as we beat the odds to win 2-1 against Crawley Town on Friday night.
First-half goals from Josh Davison and Ali Al-Hamadi put the Dons in the driving seat at half-time, before Crawley were spurred on in the second-half by a dismissal for Joe Lewis following a second yellow card.
Will Wright’s strike halved our lead but a tactical shift and pure grit and determination helped this plucky Wimbledon side over the line to a deserved three points in front of a large away following from SW19.
Here Terry – who was standing in for Johnnie Jackson after he was sent to the stands by the referee – spoke about his pride in victory and discussed how starting the game fast was so key to getting three points.
ON THE PERFORMANCE…
I’m very proud of the lads. It was a really frustrating night but we’re proud of everybody tonight. We brought Alex Pearce on and we were solid and organised. We saw the game out, we had a goalkeeper with a calm head – Alex Bass has pulled off some world class saves for us.
To have that celebration with the supporters at the end – unfortunately the gaffer wasn’t allowed to do that – it was brilliant. They took the roof off, it was like playing at home. It’s galvanized us. We’re on a good run. Sometimes you can wilt under that pressure at the end there but the lads stood up to it.
We should have had three goals really with Ryan Johnson’s header which came off the post. I’m really happy for the lads. The gaffer was ecstatic, he said to the lads afterwards, “that character and that spirit is what being a true Don is all about!”
It felt like everything was against us but the supporters behind the goal were magnificent. And the lads, I can’t wait to see their data, because it will be through the roof. To a man they were magnificent.
Our goalkeeper had bottles thrown at him and the officials added an extra minute on. It’s terrible. We’re trying to protect our players from that and all of a sudden more time is added on.
ON STARTING FAST…
The gaffer instills it in them. We tell them to come out and be on the front foot, defend high, put balls forwards, put teams under pressure etc. You can play off of that. Rather than practicing short goal kicks and it being a bit slower we’re all about high energy and tempo.
We’re traditionally fast starters and we like that tag. We’re going to keep doing all of the stuff we work on in training to ensure that we’re on the front foot. We’re great in transition and in this past month we’ve been very clinical.
PICS: Paul Hazelwood (Pro Sports Images)