Exclusive interview with Terry Skiverton – Dons assistant boss on forward planning, the summer window and James Tilley’s start to the season

AFC Wimbledon assistant manager Terry Skiverton believes that his side have benefitted at the start of this season from the forward planning ahead of last summer’s transfer window.

The Dons brought in 12 players over the recent window, completing a squad overhaul that saw the likes of captain Alex Woodyard leave the club and long-standing first-teamer and academy graduate Will Nightingale make a loan switch to Ross County in Scotland.

Johnnie Jackson’s side acted quickly at the end of last season and had eight players signed before they headed off on their training camp in Spain ahead of this campaign.

Wimbledon have only suffered defeat once this season in League Two – a rotated side losing 2-1 at home to Stockport – and are only two points off the play-off spots heading to Walsall tomorrow.

Skiverton has been Jackson’s assistant throughout his time at SW19, with the 48-year-old east Londoner initially joining the Dons boss at Charlton as first-team coach in January 2022.

Speaking to the South London Press, Skiverton said: “The gaffer was really big on getting that balance right.

“We have some excellent young players who are already in the club, but it seemed to be heavily weighted on one side, and they needed a bit of help.

“We didn’t have an age group of 23 to 27. We put them in three categories. You have younger players who have under 50 league games, and we had quite a lot of them who started last year. They are the dependants. Then you have the ones who have 100 to 200 games – they’re independent and can look after themselves. Then you have got the likes of Alex Pearce – the experienced ones who have more than 300 games. They’re the interdependents – the ones who bring it all together.

“It was about making sure we stocked up heavily in that middle set. We had some good, experienced players, but no one was in between that.

“We made sure that we got some players who still had a little bit of legs left in their careers but also players who needed that second chance to find a home, so they can thrive and help the club win.”

The Dons were in need of a change.

Last season saw the club slip from potential play-off candidates to 21st in the League Two table by the time the final ball was kicked in the 1-0 defeat at Grimsby at the last game of the season, with injuries and loanees being recalled derailing a 10-game unbeaten run before the winter window.

“We knew what was happening,” admitted Skiverton of last season’s run, with Wimbledon winning just two of their final 23 outings.

“We went into a meeting [at the start of January], and we found out that we were going to lose Ayoub Assal. We were also going to lose Paris [Maghoma] and Ryley Towler too. It was too big a loss. It was too much for us as a squad to lose them so quickly and then pick up the injuries.

“We rushed Alex Pearce back, and he ended up getting injured. We limped home towards the end of the season. We had some really uncomfortable meetings with the chairman and the board.

“They told us that they weren’t happy with what happened. We weren’t happy as a football club, so we sat down and said: ‘How can we make sure that this doesn’t happen again?’

“The conversations that we had with Craig Cope [head of football operations] and everybody around the table was making sure that our recruitment was good and that we got as many players as early as possible so we could work with them.

“This was the first window that we could really plan for. We feel as though that it’s paid off.”

One of the early summer transfer targets – James Tilley – has hit the ground running at Plough Lane.

The 25-year-old right-sided midfielder, who joined from Crawley for an undisclosed fee, has already bagged eight goals in all competitions and is joint-second in the scoring charts in the fourth division.

“We’re likening it a little bit to the season that Sam Hoskins [who scored 22 goals as Northampton won promotion to League One] had last year. It didn’t matter than he was out wide, you can still chip in with goals,” added Skiverton, who worked with Tilley during their time together at Yeovil when he was on loan from Brighton.

“The things that Tills has brought to his game, which the gaffer, along with Rob Tuvey, has done a hell of a lot of work on, is making sure that when you’re in and around the box, it’s one of three things.

“You’re either sliding it through for a team-mate. You’re shifting and crossing for someone to score. Or you’re shifting and shooting.

“The clarity that Tills has got means that he’s been really encouraged to go and express himself in that final third to take shots, risks and chances.

“With everybody that’s doing it up there at the moment, he’s a joy to watch and the fans are appreciating that too.”

The Dons are winless in their last four in League Two but have taken the lead in all of those outings.

Skiverton added: “We need to make sure that we’re up there and be as high as we can – we want to be pushing for promotion.

“That’s the aim of the football club. If we come up short, it’s better than aiming for midtable obscurity and the supporters having another disappointing year.

“We want to give the fans a brand of football that’s attacking, high pressing and creates lots of chances.

“It’s about sticking to the brand and giving the supporters a brand of football they can be proud of.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD