I’d happily lose Dons captaincy – Deji Oshilaja only worried about wins

BY SAM SMITH

Deji Oshilaja says he would happily swap the honour of captaining AFC Wimbledon for an improvement in their form.

The centre-back was named skipper in the summer by boss Neal Ardley following the departure of Barry Fuller.

Wimbledon’s home record has been poor this season and they have failed to win any of their five matches at the Cherry Red Records Stadium this season, the latest being Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Scunthorpe United.

Oshilaja, 25, said: “It’s a great honour to be captain of any club. For this club to put their faith in me, for the staff to put their faith in me, it’s a great testament to myself and my character.

“We have leaders all over the pitch and the captain is just someone who wears an armband. As a team we will lead each other, there’s nobody who thinks they are above anybody else in the team. We all just try our best to make us better. I don’t mind who the captain is, as long as we’re winning games.

“I was captain of the U21 team at Cardiff City too, it’s something that people obviously see in me. I’m happy that I’m captain but I’d prefer to be captain of a side that’s winning games, and that’s the most important thing for us right now.”

The Dons gifted Scunthorpe their three goals in Saturday’s defeat. A Josh Morris brace and an Ike Ugbo tap-in was enough for the Iron to claim victory, despite headers from Liam Trotter and Kwesi Appiah.

Wimbledon boss Ardley fumed after the game, claiming his coaching staff had worked all week to eradicate the way Scunthorpe scored their goals.

“It was disappointing,” said Oshilaja. “You can’t concede three goals at home [and expect to win]. As a team we have to be better, we controlled the game well and started the game brightly. All the goals were disappointing to concede but we’ll dissect them and look at them through the week. We have to be better defensively but also as we have to be better. We’ll have to go again on Tuesday against Swansea and put this result behind us.

“We started the second half well, we created lots of chances and on another day we would have scored more. Then to concede the third goal was a sucker punch. We have to be better in all aspects and areas. If you look at our team we’re better than that, collectively we’re pretty solid defensively – front to back.

“We need to start turning these good performances into wins, then there will be a better feel-good factor around the place.”

IMAGE BY PAUL EDWARDS