Johnnie Jackson hails Wimbledon hat-trick hero Omar Bugiel

Posted Sunday, April 28, 2024 by PA

Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson hailed the impact of Omar Bugiel after the forward spurred the club to a 5-1 demolition of Walsall.

Bugiel, 30, dominated proceedings from the offset, and was duly rewarded for his movement and physicality with a hat-trick and the man-of-the-match award.

Jackson lavished praise on the Lebanese international for his superlative display.

He said: ”He’s a manager’s dream to be honest.

”He’s a great lad, a real good character and gets what we’re about. I think he’s a perfect fit for the football club.

”We try to shape the team around him, getting crosses into the box.

“He’s in the right places now, whereas when he first came to us he wasn’t in positions to score goals.

”He’s taken it all onboard now, proper player.”

Bugiel completed his hat-trick within just 52 minutes of play, and also provided an assist for Ronan Curtis before Mo Faal’s own-goal, with the Saddlers’ only consolation coming from Anthony Hutchinson’s penalty.

It was perhaps the perfect way to finish the season in front of a rapturous Plough Lane, with both sets of supporters paying tribute to the recently deceased Joe Kinnear.

Wimbledon legend Kinnear, who passed away earlier this month from vascular dementia, was honoured by a minute’s applause ahead of kick-off and Jackson added his voice in tribute to the Irishman.

He stated: ”I played against his teams when he was manager of Luton Town, and had a couple of brief moments with him.

”He was a gentleman but what he’s done here, when you come to a football club you look at who came here and what they achieved and try to emulate it.

”He took the club to their highest ever finish and was heralded for that and rightly so.

”He was a proper football man.”

Meanwhile, Walsall manager Mat Sadler voiced his disappointment in the day’s events, with the defeat allowing Wimbledon to climb ahead of the Saddlers in the final league table.

He said: ”I think you saw that level of disappointment and that’s not something I want to see from my team.

”I’m frustrated we have to stew on this result for some time now.

”That’s the frustration for me today because the group have been amazing this season.

”From minute one they’ve moved the football club forward this season in many different ways.

”We wanted to finish strongly and we weren’t able to do that today and I think building into next year, games that have gone away from us, we have to eradicate them. They can’t happen.

”I have to give it a bit of perspective from what we’ve done this season, but I can’t help but be disappointed that it’s gone the way it’s gone today.

“There will be things we’ll be disappointed in but my job now is to make sure we improve in the areas we want to improve in.”