Mark Robinson ‘frustrated’ with Wimbledon’s start to second half in 1-1 draw with Wigan Athletic

Mark Robinson bemoaned AFC Wimbledon’s start to the second half in the 1-1 draw with Wigan Athletic on Tuesday night.

The Latics’ Jamie Proctor opened the scoring just before the hour-mark. The Dons had allowed Wigan to grow into the game after half-time, having dominated most of the first-half without scoring from several chances.

George Dobson’s thumping header eventually earned Robinson’s side a point – but the head coach felt that they should have won.

He said: “I am just quite frustrated with the first 10-15 minutes of the second-half. I just don’t know where that came from and we were so passive. It was such a poor goal that we gave away. It was a ridiculous goal to concede.

“From the moment the goalkeeper got the ball we made a poor decision. We shouldn’t have pressed, and then it was a passive press. A big rule of ours is that you send them away from goal and we got them on the touchline there. There should have been only one way he [Dan Gardner] was going and that was away from goal, but we let him turn and get a cross in. Then we were out of shape.

“There were good performances out there, but we just can’t concede goals like that. I said to the lads: ‘you have got to give yourselves chances to win football matches. If someone does something amazing out there you hold your hands up, but it was just a poor goal.’

“We got a point, but it’s still not good enough. We wanted three points, and it was a game that we should have got three points from. I want some answers from the lads for the first 10 minutes after half-time. It has happened too often, and I want to see us come out and take the game completely to the opposition.”

Wimbledon lined up in a slightly different 4-4-2 shape. Joe Pigott and Ollie Palmer led the line as a front pairing.

They were accompanied by wingers Jack Rudoni and Ryan Longman – who were often so high that the formation appeared to be a 4-2-4.

Robinson felt there were teething issues with the shape.

He continued: “I was a little bit concerned with a 4-4-2 that the football becomes predictable and straight-lined. From what people have said to me, they didn’t feel it was like that, but I feel that sometimes you run out of options.

“I want us to still play our football and get into wide areas and then have good quality so that we can use the two front men. That certainly happened down the right hand side, but it didn’t happen down the left hand side – that’s something we have to work on.

“At times when the centre-backs got the ball, it was just the easy option to go forward and I am not sure we got loads of success from that. If we are going to play with that shape it has to be a work in progress and we need to find better solutions.”