Strain of AFC Wimbledon’s struggles is written all over boss Neal Ardley’s face

AFC Wimbledon 0

Luton Town 2

Mpanzu 61 Lee 80

By Max Hall at the Cherry Red Records Stadium

As he trooped towards the tunnel at half-time in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Luton, Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley wore a gaunt, troubled expression.

The usually fresh-faced 46-year-old was a picture of deep, drawn worry lines as he digested what he had witnessed during 45 minutes of football that one of his deputies, Simon Bassey, later described as the better half against visitors who have made an early bid for League One promotion.

That it was long-serving first-team coach Bassey who conducted the media session after the dust had settled on a sixth defeat in a row – and ninth in 10 matches – may also be significant.

Ardley is always quick to leap to the defence of his players, but Bassey – whose association with the club started 34 years ago – did not mince his words, and accused some members of the squad of not being fit to wear the shirt.

The line afterwards was that the first half had gone reasonably well to see the hosts go into the break level, only to undo their efforts with a listless second-half performance, typified by conceding the opening goal from a Wimbledon throw in their own half.

But the problems run deeper than that, and Ardley’s troubled expression at the break suggested he is all too aware of it.

That the hosts finished the first half on even terms was as much to do with Luton’s failings as any stirring, backs-to-the-wall defensive effort from Wimbledon.

The visitors failed to build upon a bright start that, no matter the attempts by Bassey to downplay their efforts afterwards, saw Danny Hylton send a looping header onto the inside of Joe McDonnell’s left-hand post inside four minutes and then head another effort over the home keeper nine minutes later which forced Rod McDonald to hack clear.

But it is the other end that should really concern Ardley and his staff on the evidence of this match. Wimbledon never once carried a threat, and their utter lack of quality in the final third was exemplified after half an hour when a rare sight of goal arrived only after a bout of Sunday league-style approach play, as Liam Trotter’s attempted cross from the left spun up off a defender’s leg, Kwesi Appiah’s attempted flick-on header ballooned up into the air and the ball ricocheted to Anthony Hartigan. Fittingly, the midfielder fizzed his low effort across goal and wide.

Ardley had abandoned the 4-4-2 seen so often this season but his attempt to mirror Luton’s 4-3-1-2 appeared merely to have marooned an extra blue shirt upfield – in this case Scott Wagstaff, deployed in the pocket behind Appiah and James Hanson.

Hanson at least made himself a handful for the visiting defence, two white shirts grappling with him on the rare occasions the ball was played up to him. But it was somehow emblematic of the team performance that the number 18’s biggest contribution was being a troublesome object to get around, rather than offering anything more proactive.

The target man at least outshone his strike partner. Former Palace striker Appiah is presumably on big money – at least in Wimbledon terms – but he put in a display that made it appear he is wholly out of his depth at this level.

Yes, he was starved of service, but when he did see the ball he did nothing with it, save for a delightful aerial flicked backheel to Wagstaff in the 35th minute that merely served to shine a light on the rest of his 90 minutes.

There were cheers when Joe Pigott replaced Appiah, but with the fans’ favourite failing to make an impact in the 25 minutes remaining, Ardley must find a solution to the dearth of attackers at his disposal from within his current squad, and urgently.

We’ve been here before, of course, and the manager has always managed to turn it around.

“We’ve got Shrewsbury [at home] on Saturday, and we should win that, because they’re in trouble,” said one Dons fan blithely, as he headed into Wimbledon on the bus, long after the floodlights had dimmed at the Cherry Red Records Stadium on Saturday.

In one sentence he had neatly summed up just how much pressure is piling up on the Wimbledon manager ahead of a match which, for him at least, may finally qualify as a must-win fixture.

AFC Wimbledon (4-3-1-2): McDonnell 6, Oshilaja 6, Nightingale 6, McDonald 6, Purrington 6 (Pinnock 65, 7), Hartigan 6, Soares 5, Trotter 6, Wagstaff 6, Hanson 6, Appiah 5 (Pigott 65, 5). Not used: King, Watson, Thomas, Egan, Burey.