Johnnie Jackson backing Josh Davison after penalty miss

Posted Wednesday, October 26, 2022 by PA

AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson has no issues with penalty taker Josh Davison despite his miss from the spot in the 1-1 draw against Crewe.

Wimbledon were the better team in the opening 45 minutes but left it late to make their first-half dominance count, Ayoub Assal netting in added time to give the hosts the lead.

However, Crewe responded with renewed energy in the second half and equalised just after the hour mark through Rio Adebisi.

Davison had the perfect opportunity to hand Dons all three points but his penalty was saved by Crewe keeper Arthur Okonkwo and the contest ultimately ended with both sides getting a point apiece.

And despite some disappointment with the result, Jackson knows that he can rely on Davison in the future.

He said: “People miss penalties. Josh is a good penalty taker – he stepped up tonight, and if you’re a penalty taker you’re going to miss penalties.

“Harry Kane missed one last week, this happens. He’s (Davison) got the nerve to stand up and take them, he put one away the other week. I’ve no issues with Josh being our penalty taker, he strikes a good ball.

“I think we had some spells in the second half, and then missing the penalty deflated us a little bit. That knocked the stuffing out of us a little bit and we didn’t find our energy and a way to win it.

“I thought before that and in the build-up to that we looked like we were going to grab one and win it. That was a turning point a little bit.

“It’s a point, but we wanted three and we didn’t quite manage that tonight. I thought we had enough opportunities to put the game to bed.”

Wimbledon stay 17th in the table following the draw, while Crewe slipped to 14th after other results in the league.

For Crewe, the result was a seventh draw in 15 league matches this campaign – the joint most of any team in the league.

And though Crewe manager Alex Morris wants those results to turn into victories, he is aware that the side is working as hard as ever.

He added: “Lots of teams are very up and down. I said to the lads that I would rather it be what is happening at the minute, we’re not winning but we very rarely lose. We’ve not won seven matches, but we’ve also not lost seven matches.

“There are bits of the game where I know we can improve but there’s bits where we are very good. We were much better in the second half than in the first, that’s encouraging.”