Neal Ardley was unrepentant about his decision not to start Tom Elliott in the wake of AFC Wimbledon’s 2-1 home defeat to Scunthorpe last night.
Former Cambridge striker Elliott, a bright light in defeat to Bolton on Saturday, was left on the bench against the Iron, yet rose from the dugout after half-time to almost rescue a point from the 2-0 half-time deficit with as complete a centre-forward performance as you could wish for.
But despite labelling Elliott’s performance, which included an assist for Darius Charles’ goal, incredible Ardley claimed history shows the big frontman’s temporary removal from the front-line was for his and the team’s long-term good.
“Tom was immense when he came on, but last year we found if we played him in three games a week he suffered in one of them because of it. He is a big, strong, powerful boy and he needs more recovery time.
“So people can say we should have started Tom, then he gets an injury or goes to Saturday and doesn’t play so well because he is tired, so we are trying to balance it off.
“Tyrone (Barnett) needed minutes, has been sharp in training and played well last week at Peterborough, so we went with him and Lyle and they caused problems.
AFC Wimbledon's defeat to Scunthorpe in pictures:
The switch to three up top second half which saw Elliott’s earlier than wanted introduction was all but forced on Ardley by a loose defensive display in the last 25 minutes of a first half which could have seen his side out of the contest by the interval.
Ardley labelled the nightmare period out of character, stressing his side had gone too gun-ho in chasing a leveller following Tom Hopper’s headed opener for the visitors.
“Whether we had started with Tom or Ty I don’t think had any bearing on what we did defensively first half,” he continued.
“We started trying to chase the game from the moment we were 1-0 down and we became very open because of it.
“Bully (Danny Bulman) and Jake (Reeves) were chasing things other people should be chasing and Scuuny are a good side who will hurt you going forward.”
Tactical issues aside Ardley bemoaned the fact his League One new-boys got the thin end of big decisions from referee Dean Whitestone, seeing one soft penalty decisions awarded against them while being denied what he claimed were two dead certs ones of their own.
“I’ve got to be careful what I say, but I’ve watched it back and we had two stonewall penalties,” he added.
“Tyrone Barnett has had his legs taken from behind him in the first half and it is only after that the defender hooks it clear. The ref sees that and thinks he’s got the ball.
“Then at the end Dominic Poleon is trying to get to a ball that has been played to him and their right back blatantly does not play the ball he plays the man.”
