Neal Ardley paid tribute to David Connolly after the veteran striker scored a last-gasp winner for AFC Wimbledon against high-flying Luton Town.
The Dons had led 2-0 after Alfie Potter and Dannie Bulman scored in the first half.
But the Hatters came back to level thanks to Jayden Stockley and West Ham loanee Elliot Lee.
However it was Connolly, who played with Ardley at Wimbledon, who had the final word with a late strike.
Ardley said: “I love having David around the place and the lads have got so much respect for him,”
“He rolled back the years and it’s great to have an option like that. We had wanted to stretch the game so we put Ade Azeez on to utilise his pace near the end of the game and that worked.
“Then David did what he does best. He reads those types of moments and I’m delighted for him. He has had a tough year in his football career and hopefully he will really enjoy this.”
Ardley was relieved the Dons were able to halt Luton's momentum after equalising, with his attacking substitutions paying off.
The Dons boss added: “It was a classic game of two halves. In the first half we were brilliant and we could have been 4-0 up.
“We hit the woodwork twice, but it did not fall to one of our players. Then they hit the woodwork a minute before half-time and end up scoring.
“I thought we dominated the first half, but John Still has got them at it. He changed their shape a little bit and they caused us problems.
“We could not manage that and we conceded a car crash of a second goal. We had to really dig in, but it was tough because the momentum had swung their way.
“We are delighted with the team. We showed good character in the second half. People may moan about it and say that we did not do this or that in the second half, but it was hard.
“They are good at what they do and we struggled to handle it. With 20 minutes to go we made a few substitutions and that brought us back into it.
“Alfie Potter was really good in the first half, but he was tiring near the end because he hasn’t played much lately. We decided to be brave and change to a 4-3-3.”
