Wally Downes says AFC Wimbledon have clear run now at League One survival – and Alan Pardew reckons Dons are not doomed yet

BY MAX HALL

AFC Wimbledon manager Wally Downes says the remaining 14 matches of the season will finally allow his side to put a run together after tough matches in the FA Cup and against the division’s better sides.

“We’ve had two poor performances at home but we’ve had a good performance away before this game,” said Downes in the wake of Saturday’s FA Cup loss to Championship Millwall. “Now we’re in a position where we’re playing the teams around us.

“With today’s performance, and not the result, and Tuesday’s performance plus the result [a win at Walsall] I believe that we can now go on a little run of games and get ourselves a run together. Because teams around us, while we’ve been in the cup in the last month, five weeks, teams that are in the bottom four with us have had good runs and stuck three or four wins together, two or three wins together and we’ve got left behind.

“We haven’t had that sort of a run yet because we’ve had some difficult games: Sunderland away, Coventry and Portsmouth; but now we’re playing teams sort of in the same position as us and these are the games that are going to define our season.”

That was a theme echoed by former Crystal Palace and Charlton manager Alan Pardew, present at the game as a broadcast summariser.

“I still think there’s time because momentum’s a strange thing,” said Pardew of Wimbledon’s battle to beat the drop. “If they could win two of their next four you’ve got a little bit of momentum going forward after that win at Walsall. I think for Wally that will be the target, if they could squeeze six, seven, eight points out of the next four games then you’ve got something to really have a go at.”

But Dons manager Downes said he is under no illusions about the task facing his players, who he says must be proactive now and get results rather than battling away as underdogs.

“There’s a weight on teams in the lower part of the division,” added Downes. “An expectancy to win and you’ve got to get out of this position and everyone’s a bit edgy, and if you let a goal in early or you don’t perform early the atmosphere can dissipate.

“They’re never found wanting for trying, the boys. Sometimes, in the position that we’re in, with the young squad we’ve got, the expectation of having to go out and win a game is a lot more difficult than having to go to Sunderland when you’re the underdog and you’ve got to perform and you’re gritty and you’re trying to get something.

“When you come home you know that our home performances have to be promotion level now. You’ve got to win your home games and I think it’s been a little bit difficult for us to make that transition in the last couple of home games. But hopefully now, after a good win on Tuesday night – and they played well enough today – they’ll be able to take that on, because the cup has been a wonderful distraction for us but now we’ve got 14 cup finals – not in the FA Cup final but 14 of our own cup finals.”