Pete Wild hails Barrow’s second-half performance in comeback win over Wimbledon

Posted Sunday, March 26, 2023 by PA

Barrow manager Pete Wild hailed his side’s second-half performance after they claimed a 2-1 League Two comeback win at home to AFC Wimbledon.

Luke Jenkins opened the scoring for the visitors on his league debut before Niall Canavan levelled things on the hour.

Top scorer Josh Gordon then scored the winner 13 minutes later to make it 11 without a win for AFC Wimbledon and keep Barrow’s good run of form alive.

“Not a great game of football, especially first half,” said Wild. “I think we’ve played more football today then we’ve played in weeks and we spoke that we wanted to be the team that played more today.

“We’ve passed the ball more. First half when they got a sloppy goal, they had something to bed in for and we had to try and break them down.

“But second half we came out and had a right go, we pushed our full-backs right on to give us more men in their half and I thought it worked a treat.

“We looked nervous and sloppy. It’s not been a great week and we looked like a team that was just bundling along. At half-time I said ‘I want you to do this, this and this’.

“To score two goals off set-pieces is really pleasing and to win the game and see the game out is dead pleasing.

“I had a bit of banter with him…I didn’t realise my centre-half was going to be in the opposite box and I didn’t realise my corner taker could keep it away from the goalkeeper…so that was really nice when that happens.”

AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson rued his side’s missed opportunities to double their lead in the first half, in which Ethan Chislett hit the post and Paul Farman saved from Kasey McAteer’s header.

The former Charlton man explained: “Unbelievably frustrating. I thought the way we set up, the shape of the team and the way we performed in the first period was outstanding.

“It gave us a real platform for the game, got a goal, should have had more and was really untroubled.

“The goals are set-pieces we conceded and we’ve got to deal with them better. It changes the situation of the game and we have to go and chase it but we shouldn’t have been in that situation for how we played in that opening hour.

“On the pitch where people need to carry out their jobs people haven’t done it.

“A second goal would have helped. We had a few opportunities to do that through our good play to win the ball, counter, we hit the post and I thought we had all the opportunities – but only had one to show for it.

“Poor goals from our point of view to not clear our lines and allow people to get free.”