Dons boss Ardley not at fault for side’s shortcomings against Bradford City
AFC WIMBLEDON 0
BRADFORD CITY 1
Payne 45 pen
BY RICHARD CAWLEY AT THE CHERRY RED RECORDS STADIUM
The natives are getting restless at AFC Wimbledon – but Neal Ardley was not to blame for Tuesday night’s loss to Bradford City.
Familiarity can breed contempt, or at least an under-appreciation of a manager when they have been at a club for an extended period of time. Ardley is third longest-serving in the top four tiers of English football and will clock up six years at the helm next Wednesday.
But Ipswich fans wanted change when they thought things had got stale under Mick McCarthy. He left and the Tractor Boys are now second bottom in the Championship under Paul Hurst, who gained so many plaudits at Shrewsbury Town.
No club has a divine right to win in League One and certainly not Wimbledon, who despite a more ambitious recruitment drive in the summer transfer window are not exactly splashing the cash.
The suggestion from Dons fans is that the entertainment is not there, the football not free-flowing enough. But it was not Ardley who missed some good, good chances in midweek.
Substitutes Anthony Wordsworth and Kwesi Appiah both had late opportunities which should – as a minimum – have at least worked Bradford keeper Richard O’Donnell. Both sailed over.
And Ardley had no input in Deji Oshilaja taking a bite out of George Miller in the box just before the end of the first half. Jack Payne – only on the pitch due to an injury to Jim O’Brien on the half-hour mark, tucked the penalty away with the minimum of fuss.
None of this was Ardley’s fault. And the Dons chief did not even touch on a strange call by referee Keith Stroud. He awarded a free-kick to the hosts after a foul on Andy Barcham, pictured above, even though the winger only appeared to get contact from his markers inside the Bradford box.
Now I’m not saying Wimbledon were brilliant. This was no fiesta of football. But they should have walked away with at least a point.
City captain Anthony O’Connor strained sinews to hook off his own line when Jake Jervis’ header was only partially slowed by O’Donnell.
And the Bradford keeper also used his left arm to push over his bar when Mitch Pinnock’s corner found an unmarked Tom Soares.
O’Donnell had a lucky escape on a harmless looking bouncing ball which looped over him, but Joe Pigott could only find the side-netting from a tight angle.
It’s hard to know if the ensuing treatment for the stopper was a genuine injury or an attempt to save face after an embarrassing slip.
Wimbledon did not make enough of their attacks down the flanks but their incursions carried more threat than Bradford, who were happy to play on the counter.
If they had taken at least one of their opportunities, it could have changed the complexion of the contest and given the Dons momentum.
Payne did thread two defence-splitting passes for David Ball to break down the left but he twice produced timid strikes which Joe McDonnell had no trouble holding – his ignorance of George Miller being better-placed for the second of those preventing the contest from being killed off.
Ardley said: “You’re one individual error away from losing a game.
“It’s a clearance down the channel. Number one, we should read it, because it’s the only place the ball is going.
We’re lazy in our defending – we stick a leg out – and we go 1-0 down in the 44th minute.
“There’s not bundles wrong with the performance. We had good energy and created chances but I’d rather get back to the Oxford one where we took our two chances and defended well.”
AFC Wimbledon (4-4-2): McDonnell 6, Watson 7 (Appiah 65, 5), Oshilaja 6, McDonald 6, Purrington 6, Wagstaff 6, Soares 6, Trotter 6 (Wordsworth 73, Pinnock 6 (Barcham 73), Pigott 7, Jervis 6. Not used: King, Nightingale, Hartigan, Garratt.
Everyone at the South London Press thanks you for your continued support.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing:
“A FREE COUNTRY NEEDS A FREE PRESS, AND THE NEWSPAPERS OF OUR COUNTRY ARE UNDER SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL PRESSURE”
If you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can make a donation which will allow us to continue to bring stories to you, both in print and online. Or please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ
What a ridiculous puff piece.
Ardley may not have been on the pitch, but his players were. His signings, his players, his team selection, his tactics, his team talks.
Enough is enough. The football has been dire for far too long. It’s dull. It’s boring. It’s directionless. He doesn’t seem to trust the youth players either. Hartigan looks miles better than Trotter or Soares, but can’t get a game. We’re crying out for a dynamic, forward- thinking midfielder like Dean Parrett, but he was seemingly not trusted.
It’s time for a change: New ideas, a new approach and fresh impetus.
Generous with the resting s extremely
Losery things happen to losers.
Enough is enough.
Time to go.
I think Neal’s generally got it bang on with youth – most of our young players until fairly recently weren’t good enough for the first team, and in the end a manager who consistently developed some big names at Cardiff would probably know above most of us. Maybe some people have convinced themselves that we’ve got the kind of youth system that Terry Burton plucked Neal himself out of in the 80s and 90s, but we clearly don’t yet. And most of the talent we have produced has gone elsewhere for presumably bigger money and better chances. I’m not immune to criticising managers, and Neal isn’t unsackable – and he does make mistakes, but he’s the manager who kept us up, got us up, has kept us in League One for three seasons in a row, when most of us probably thought we’d only just be challenging for promotion from League Two by now. He has done wonders with some players, somehow turning Tom Elliot into the player he is today, and gave Lyle Taylor a new lease of life. And on fewer resources than many do. Bears thinking about I think.