Mark Robinson reveals Wimbledon goalkeeper acknowledged error after Fleetwood defeat

Nik Tzanev acknowledged that he had made an error in gifting Fleetwood Town their winning goal against AFC Wimbledon, Mark Robinson revealed.

Barrie McKay charged down the New Zealand goalkeeper’s kick on 88 minutes and the ball rebounded into the net. It was the only goal of a tight game at Plough Lane.

The defeat leaves Wimbledon 22^nd in League One, although they have games in hand on many teams around them.

Dons boss Robinson told the club’s website: “Nik knows what he has done wrong, and I don’t want the fans to think that just because we are trying to play more that’s part of what we are doing. That’s never going to be part of what we are doing and Nik knows that, the same as when we are chasing goals – I’m not looking for us to make four or five passes when we can put good quality crosses into the area.

“We are a work in progress and I have to maintain that we are not going to go long ball. We’ve been there, done that, and we were conceding three, fours, and fives. We are not doing that now, but we are fully aware that we need to find that cutting edge and find those goals.

“When you are in the position we are in the final third is the hardest bit. That’s where players can get anxious, where they can have the extra touch. They don’t pull the trigger quickly enough. We need to keep them feeling confident, so that we find those solutions. On the rest of the pitch, apart from two or three areas where we overplayed, we played good stuff, but in the final third we need to get better and we will.”

It was a familiar story for the South Londoners, who failed to score in a game for the fifth time in their last 10 matches.

Joe Pigott and Ryan Longman both went close. The former had a goal chalked off for a foul by Jack Rudoni on the build-up – but Robinson conceded that his side failed to create enough chances.

“We had looked at how we were going to hurt them and have we hurt them enough? Probably not, but we’ve got into good situations and we didn’t do enough with the ball when we got into those situations,” he said.

“They (Fleetwood) throw their bodies on the line. Most of our shots were blocked, and that’s what they are [known for], so we had to find better solutions, we’ve got to find better detail. If you win 1-0 you take that because I think most of their defeats have been by that score-line.

“They don’t concede many goals, but by the same token any chances they had today – and their manager admitted that – came from our own doing, including the goal.”

Header image by Keith Gillard