Ardley delight as Dons dig deep to sink Pirates with late winner

Posted Sunday, February 18, 2018 by PA

AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley made no apology for the manner of his side’s crucial 1-0 victory over Bristol Rovers, which lifted them out of the League One relegation zone.

Having seen the Dons lose their last four games, Ardley decided to tighten things up tactically and the result was a dour match that was drifting towards stalemate before Joe Pigott’s stoppage-time winner.

That late twist moved Wimbledon up three places to 18th in the table, one point clear of the bottom four, in which Oldham have now taken their place.

Ardley said: “Today was exactly how I thought it would have to be – we’d have to dig in and we’d have to scrap.

“I’m not going to apologise for us not being free-flowing and having loads and loads of chances because when you’ve conceded 11 goals in four games you have to start with a clean sheet, if you can.

“I thought the subs made a great difference just as the team were tiring.

“There were players out on their feet – Liam Trotter has played in every one of the last five games and he was still going strong at the end.

“We had to make sure we were in the game and have a chance of winning it and if we’d have drawn 0-0, we’d have drawn 0-0 because we had to be solid and hard to beat.

“In the end, the boys have come through and obviously we’re delighted.”

Ellis Harrison wasted a great chance for Rovers on the hour mark when he sent a free header well wide before Joe Partington stung the palms of George Long from long range.

Wimbledon snatched victory right at the death when Pigott planted a superb downward header into the net from fellow substiute Harry Forrester’s cross.

Rovers manager Darrell Clarke was critical of his side’s “diabolical” forward play.

He said: “I thought there was nothing in the game.

“We defended very well for 92 minutes and 42 seconds, but our forward play was diabolical today and I’ve just had a pop at the lads for that.

“We had opportunities, we had a lot of breaks on them, forward runs, but our decision-making, with our forward pass wanting to break their line, wasn’t good enough today.

“I felt a bit for my backline, to be honest with you, because we defended superbly.

“The lads have put in a shift defensively, but we’re a lot better than that with our forward play and certainly today was not one of those days where we got it going.

“We had umpteen times to get the decision right or make the right through ball or get something right in the final third and we didn’t do that today.

“We were just very poor with the ball, I thought.”