Dons boss admits win over Oxford won no style points

BY MAX HALL

Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley admitted his side’s 2-1 win at home to Oxford today wasn’t pretty, and accepted responsibility for a less than fluent display after he demanded his side get back to basics in training this week.

“I can’t beat around the bush – we weren’t great today by any stretch of the imagination, as far as the quality of our football,” said the Dons manager. “But I have got to take some responsibility for that, because I’ve battered the boys all week.

“Last week we turned up and didn’t do any of the basics for 35 minutes at Accrington, and found ourselves 2-0 down. We’ve gone hard on all that kind of stuff with them, and sometimes, when you focus hard on one particular thing, they forget the other half, which is, actually express yourself, get the ball down, play, work your patterns.

“So today we weren’t great, I thought Oxford were unfortunate to lose the game. I thought they were the better team.”

But the Wimbledon manager wasn’t entirely displeased with his side’s performance.

“Today we dug in and defended our box really well,” added Ardley, “Macca [goalkeeper Joe McDonnell] has hardly had a shot to save on target in the second half.

“We did our jobs well and although it wasn’t pleasing on the eye, I think you just take a deep breath and move on to the next one.”

IMAGES BY PAUL EDWARDS