James Ball earned praise for playing in a position he’s less accustomed to - and the midfielder vowed to keep putting the team first in the battle for points.
James gave support to striker Josh Davison in a move up front which almost paid off for us at Wrexham, but ultimately ended in a 2-0 defeat - only our third loss on the road all season.
“For the team, I thought I’d give it what I’d got,” said James. “It’s been frustrating not getting the minutes, but I’m itching to play and trying to do everything I can. It was a bit of a different role for me, playing up front, and something I’m not really used to.
“I tried to put myself about and be a bit of a nuisance. I felt like I did that. I got a bit tired towards the end, having not really played a lot of minutes. Hopefully, I can build on this performance, get some more minutes, and settle into the team.”
You can listen to everything James had to say below.
The 28-year-old has made 24 appearances for the Dons since his summer arrival at the Cherry Red Records Stadium, with 14 of those as a substitute across the various competitions.
“I think I’ve only played any substantial minutes in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy," James added. “Those games are kind of once a month and to try and get that match fitness is difficult. You can’t really replicate league football, it’s just a different tempo and pace. I think it caught up with me towards the end, but it’s tough against a big, physical team like Wrexham.
“We had a chance, first half, where I got first contact on a header and one of their players just nipped in front of Josh. I had a header at the back post, which maybe I could have done better with, but I just couldn’t get down on it.
"I was just trying to upset their backline, because we knew we had a threat if we went in behind. We’ve just got to be more clinical.”
After a gruelling schedule recently, we don’t play again until we aim to complete the double over our visitors from West Sussex next weekend,
“We’ve got to park the Wrexham game now and move on from it,” said James. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy with a few players missing. We still had a good team out though and we will still fancy our chances against Crawley.
“We won at their place before Christmas with ten men, so we’re looking forward to putting it right. It’s all so tight in the league at the minute and a win here and there can change everything. Win next week and hopefully we’re back on track.
“The Christmas and New Year schedule is always crazy. We’ve got a week now to build up and prepare for this one and put those things right that were wrong today, which I’m sure we’ll do. This team has shown quite a lot that we can come back from setbacks.”
Photos: Pro Sports Images.