Dons boss explains why time was right to hand ex-Charlton man a deal

By Richard Cawley

richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Neal Ardley is hoping to quickly bring Lloyd Sam into the AFC Wimbledon first-team fold after snapping up the former Charlton winger last week.

The 33-year-old has played in the States for New York Red Bulls and DC United, leaving the latter at the end of the 2017 season.

Sam played over 100 games for the Addicks after emerging through the academy before joining Leeds United – his hometown club – in the summer of 2010.

He played the full 90 minutes for Wimbledon’s under-23 side as they drew 1-1 at Bristol Rovers in the Central League on Tuesday afternoon.

Dons manager Ardley said: “He had been training at Bury for a bit, his agent got him in there, but they had loads of players and didn’t really need anymore.

“We were happy to have a look. He has got a good reputation, been in the States playing a decent level. We wanted to get a game into him for Alan Reeves’ development side and liked what we saw.

“With Cody McDonald fracturing his foot and being out, it left us with a situation where we felt we could do with another attacking option.

“Lloyd is a wide player who can make things happen. He has got experience and understands the game. We have got Lyle Taylor and Joe Pigott, who are out-and-out centre-forwards with Harry Forrester and Andy Barcham as the main, wide creative players. Egli Kaja is still learning his trade.

“With eight games to go, to add one more to the ranks – not at a huge cost to us – isn’t a bad thing to do.”

Wimbledon had previously been running the rule over former West Ham, Chelsea and Charlton striker Carlton Cole during the January window but Ardley admitted at the time it would have been a gamble after a lengthy period of inactivity.

“Lloyd came here in decent shape,” said the Wimbledon manager. “He doesn’t look too far away, even if you always need a game or two to get that edge back.

“Whereas trying to find someone with eight games to go who was ready for a run-in – and an important one at that – is really difficult. Unfortunately the realms we are in at the moment as a club financially, the markets we have to try and play in, has made it hard for us.

“This season there is no doubt we’ve lost two very good players at the start of the season in Tom Elliott and Jake Reeves. Trying to replace Tom in particular has been very, very difficult and we have failed on both deadline days, not through any fault of our own.”

Wimbledon have three of their next four fixtures at the Cherry Red Records Stadium, a bonus considering they have been winless on the road since an emphatic 4-0 thumping of Bradford City at the end of January.

Only Blackburn and Northampton have won at the Dons’ base since mid-December.

Fleetwood at home is today’s Good Friday offering before the trip to Doncaster Rovers on Monday. Play-off chasing Scunthorpe and Charlton follow.

“The home form has been really positive of late,” said Ardley. “I’m not going to put any pressure on the players. We know what is at stake and what we are trying to achieve. It doesn’t need me to stand over them and keep telling them.

“I’ve just got to keep going through the processes and the training to get them all on the same page, make them feel good about themselves, make them aware of what the opposition are going to bring and trust them, which I do. If it doesn’t happen on Friday or Monday then it is going to have to happen in some other games. All we can do is our best.”

McDonald and Kwesi Appiah (knee) are not expected back this season and Darius Charle (hip) is a doubt after missing the last two fixtures.

“Dean Parrett and Barry Fuller have little niggles but they are more kicks and bruises, I’m sure they’ll do what they need to do to try and get on the pitch,” said Ardley.

Fleetwood have opened up a five-point gap on the bottom four and have gone five matches unbeaten, following up a 0-0 draw at Charlton with 2-0 wins at Rochdale and Northampton.

“They have changed their shape since Charlton,” said Ardley. “In the first couple of games John Sheridan, very cleverly, didn’t change too much.

He tried to stop the rot, and he did. He then went to three at the back and they’ve had a couple of really positive results. Not many teams have beaten Rochdale in the last 10 games, they have managed to do that, and then followed it up at Northampton.

“You get back-to-back wins and you can go, like they have, from fourth-from-bottom to giving themselves a little bit of breathing space.

“But we’ve all got to hit a target. It’s tight and every team is capable of putting points on the board. We’ve got to get to a marker where we think we have done it [staying up].”