AFC Wimbledon boss doesn’t believe nerves a factor for his players at Plough Lane

Despite conceding a last-minute equaliser at home to Gillingham on Tuesday evening, Mark Robinson does not believe that his side suffers from nerves at Plough Lane – and added that there was “loads to be pleased about” from their performance.

The Dons took the lead in the 85th minute through substitute Ollie Plamer, who towered above the Gillingham defence to plant a header past Jamie Cummings.

But the Dons would drop two points in the 96th minute when a shot from the edge of the box ricocheted off Paul Kalambayi and looped over Nik Tzanev.

Although there have only been two games, Wimbledon are yet to pick up all three points in front of the returning Plough Lane faithful.

“That will go,” said Robinson when asked if his side are slightly cautious when playing in front of the home crowd.

“It’s probably not nerves – it’s that load of wanting to do so well. When you want to do so well, sometimes you can become a little bit safe. It’s just our job as staff to give them that confidence and belief in how good they are and the sort of performances they can put in.

“I thought there was loads to be pleased about tonight [Tuesday]. The movement was good. It was exciting.”

Following the 3-3 draw with Bolton, Robinson had said that he hoped that performance would be a “wake-up call” to his players, and he even apologised on social media following the game to the fans.

After a lengthy meeting with his players on Monday morning to discuss the game, Robinson was thoroughly pleased with the nature of his side’s response against Gillingham.

“Even though in the first half we weren’t firing on all cylinders, the things we talked about in the meeting were certainly rectified in the first half, and in the second half, even more so.

“I said to the lads that we can’t be having the meetings that we had because we were going over old ground; that’s not what we want to be doing. Any meeting we have, we want to be talking about where we go next. I said that has to be the last meeting where we revisit things that we did well last season and have to put them back into place.

“It’s about me trusting them. You need to trust players off the ball. There has not been a team in the history of football that has been successful who are poor off the ball. Fundamentally, we need to be great off the ball. I need to trust them to know that they’re going to do the several things that we need to do off the ball. They did that for 96 minutes tonight.

“That’s where, as a manager, you feel confident that you can trust them.”

After 13 chances at the Gills’ goal, it took Palmer, one of the most experienced players in Robinson’s squad, to finally make the breakthrough on Tuesday.

“He did it last year when he came on as a sub,” said Robinson.

“He put in really good performances, and he did it again tonight. It’s not about starting – they all have to put in performances from the first minute. He was full of energy, full of running. If he starts, that’s what he needs to be as well.”