AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley was relieved to get off the mark in League One after holding Northampton Town to a goalless draw.
Sean Kelly hit the bar in an otherwise uneventful afternoon at Sixfields as gale-force winds played their part in a match that won’t live long in the memory.
But one thing the Dons can take away is a point, their first in the third tier of English football, to end a run of three straight defeats and lift them off the foot of the table.
“We’re delighted,” Ardley told BBC London. “We always want to win games but we’d have taken the point beforehand if you had offered it us.
“We did a lot of work yesterday trying to tighten up and make sure we didn’t get opened up like we did for 20 minutes against Scunthorpe.
“Your attacking play always suffers a bit when you work more without the ball. Territorially I thought we had the better of the play in the 90 minutes.
“The boys were aware of what they had to do today and they’ve come out and delivered. We knew we had to be on our guard.
“The second half was as high an intensity as I’ve seen from any of my teams. The conditions played a part. Today, for the spectacle, it was probably as bad as it gets.
“Their keeper is a really good kicker of the ball and he really struggled in the first half. We played into the wind really well and probably had the better chances to win it.”
Sheffield United are now surprisingly propping up the table on goal difference despite being one of the teams fancied to challenge for the title at the start of term.
