AFC Wimbledon boss Jackson: Winning margin at Harrogate should have been even greater

Johnnie Jackson felt his AFC Wimbledon side could have run out even more emphatic winners at Harrogate Town on Saturday as their impressive League Two form continued.

The Dons have taken 11 points from their last six matches in the competition and that is only bettered by Milton Keynes (18) and Walsall (12).

Their 3-0 victory at the weekend moved them up to sixth in the table.

Wimbledon are only three points behind Doncaster Rovers, who they host tomorrow, and have a fixture in hand.

Josh Kelly’s deflected strike put them ahead early on at Harrogate’s Exercise Stadium with John-Joe O’Toole forcing home at the near post from a corner in the 23rd minute.

Top scorer Matty Stevens dinked over Town keeper James Belshaw in the 50th minute to end any doubts about the outcome – his 14th goal of the season.

Wimbledon also appeared unlucky not to be awarded a penalty after that with Belshaw appearing to bring down Omar Bugiel after he had initially parried Alistair Smith’s long-range strike.

“We scored another one, it’s a perfectly good goal, I don’t know why he’s disallowed that – and there was a blatant penalty as well,” said Jackson.“I’m going to have a moan about them after a victory rather than a defeat.

“We’ve had too many of them that haven’t gone our way this year. That’s probably the third or fourth corner that we’ve scored from a corner that should count.

“Again, the other night against Newport, we had one. I could reel off a load, so I don’t understand why we’re not being given these goals – but today it hasn’t cost us.”

Wimbledon’s match went ahead despite Storm Darragh forcing some postponements.

“It was a really good performance in difficult circumstances,” said Jackson. “Conditions were really tough, but we managed them really well. It was a really professional away performance – we fully deserved the win.

“We played it really smart. The two halves were going to look very different, what with the way the wind was blowing.

“We decided if the toss fell our way that we would defend the wind in the first half – with our energy and our legs and then hope to use it to our advantage in the second half. We went in with a good advantage from the first half, so that helped with something to build on.

“We saw the game out well and took the game away from them in the second half and – to be fair – we definitely should have scored more and made it more comfortable, but we’ll take the three points.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD