Johnnie Jackson admits he hit a new high at Wimbledon with defeat of leaders

Posted Wednesday, November 09, 2022 by PA

AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson admitted his side’s 2-0 victory over league leaders Leyton Orient was his favourite as Dons boss.

Ayoub Assal’s fifth goal in his last six matches opened the scoring for Jackson’s side, his 19th-minute effort curling into the back of the net after a deflection.

And it was his shot that led to Dons’ second of the night, the rebound falling to Harry Pell who beautifully struck the ball into the top corner.

Orient had their chances but the Sky Bet League Two leaders were ultimately left frustrated on a fruitless night, with the hosts now unbeaten in six matches and having won three of their last four in the league.

“I enjoy all the wins but I think the nature of the win, the performance, the opposition, home crowd under the lights, I think that’s probably under myself our finest evening so far,” said Jackson.

“We knew we’d have to be up for it. They’ve got really good players, they’re a good side, they’re flying higher and their wingers especially are really, really dangerous.

“We knew our full-backs would have to stand up to that and I think they’ve done that magnificently.

“I felt it [the performance] coming. We were coming into the game five unbeaten, so we have got a little bit of momentum about us. It’s building gradually, it’s taken a while.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries and stop-start this season, we haven’t been able to before now get a fixed team and that continuity, but we’ve managed to do that and I think you can see that’s a team that’s starting to gel.”

The visitors remain top of the table but missed the chance to go six points clear of Stevenage, who were in Carabao Cup action.

And boss Richie Wellens rued that his side got drawn into Wimbledon’s style of play.

He said: “I thought we started the game OK in the first five or 10 minutes, but we didn’t make it count in the final third.

“They got a goal when we should stop it, we shouldn’t allow a right-footed player to cut in on the left to come inside. We’d had a warning, so we shouldn’t allow it to happen.

“These are two contrasting styles of football, and the first half we tried to play how they played, and they’re better at that than we are. We were better in the second half. We looked OK in the game and could potentially equalise.

“Am I disappointed? Yes, but in this league any team can go to any club and get beaten. That’s the nature of the division.

“We’ve been on a fantastic run away from home, but we didn’t do the basics well enough in the first half.”