"We were outfought" admits United Head Coach
Michael Appleton was in no mood to pull his punches as his United side lost 3-1 to AFC Wimbledon yesterday.
“The first half wasn’t good enough and the goals were difficult to take” he told Yellow Player HD. “The manner we conceded them was tough. There were a few contributing factors but having conceded the first goal in the way we did it was probably the first time this year where it has taken us a while to get over a goal.
“Wimbledon outfought us: there is no getting away from it. I don’t think they necessarily outfought us in the last quarter of the pitch: I though the defence handled that quite well, but I thought we got outfought at the other end and when we got the ball forward it came back too soon.”
Having gone behind to a close range effort from Tom Elliott, United had a chance to make it 3-2 from a very similar opportunity later in the game, a moment that Michael felt was pivotal.
“That summed up the day” he said. “We conceded after 20 minutes but then in the second half we had an almost identical chance and they defended for their lives and did better than we did. That meant they got the points and we didn’t.
“We get a chance to put it right next week against a team that are unbeaten. We get the chance to be the first team to beat them, and we will certainly looking to out in a better performance than we did today.”
See the full interview plus the thoughts of Alex MacDonald and extended highlights in Yellow Player HD.