Furious AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley accused his players of being dishonest in their application at Accrington Stanley.
The Dons fell three goals behind at the Crown Ground before Jack Midson’s penalty and Kwesi Appiah’s header added some respectability to the final 3-2 scoreline.
That late rally was too little too late to brighten the mood of Ardley, who had told supporters the team wanted to finish on a high after last week’s 3-0 defeat to Morecambe.
“To be honest with you I’m tired of trying to come back,” Ardley said after Wimbledon’s latest fightback fell short at Accy. “It’s been the story of our season. I can’t make any excuses. It’s probably one of the few times I’ve felt my team were dishonest. My team-talk was all about pride. It’s a tough place to come but we wanted to finish the season with a bit of pride.
“We started okay for four or five minutes but then made a mistake and folded. For the next 35 minutes we were awful and that’s not a reflection of the work me or my staff do. I hold my hands up a lot of the time. I pick my team, my players, my tactics, but today me and my staff were really let down.
“It’s a shocking mistake and it changed the course of the game. One mistake leads to a second and that leads to a third. It’s a weak mentality and I need to change that. I feel for the fans but I can’t keep saying that - I’ve got to change it and I will.
“I’m not going to big up what we did to come back. I’m so angry. Danny Hylton and Darren Jones came on and were our best two players. They led the way and embarrassed the rest of the team. How good we were in the last half-hour sums up how dishonest we were in the first half.”
Dons have struggled in the second half of their League Two and had to cope with a points deduction for fielding an ineligible player.
It has left Ardley a frustrated figure who is hell-bent on righting a few wrongs after the summer break.
“It’s been a bad second half of the season,” he added. “It hasn’t been good enough. I’ve got to become a better manager. We do a lot of good work on the training pitch that hasn’t been reflected on the field. I’ve got to be tougher with my demands and I will be.
“It’s going to be a tougher league next season and we’ve got to improve massively if we want to have the sort of season that we are hoping for. That’s going to take a lot of work between now and the start.”
