YOU BLEW IT!
Cook blasts Wigan as title pursuit rumbles on
PAUL COOK hit out at Wigan’s first-half performance as they wasted the chance to wrap up the title.
With second-placed Blackburn losing at Charlton, three points would have crowned Wigan champions.
But an inspired display from Wimbledon goalkeeper George Long kept Wigan at bay, with Ryan Colclough and Will Grigg in particular wondering how they had not scored.
And Wigan had to be content with Michael Jacobs’ 69th-minute equaliser – a deflected left-foot shot – which cancelled out Joe Pigott’s cool first-half finish.
“I’m not going to overanalyse the game, because they were two contrasting halves,” said Cook (right).
“It was a very lacklustre performance from us in the first half, and we’ve been giving too many goals to teams in the past few weeks.
“We have not just been at it like we should be and, in the majority of the games this season, we have been able to dominate the game.
“You can’t be doing that when you’re 1-0 down, though – you have to do it at 0-0. After what they’ve given me this season, I can’t criticise this group of players – I wouldn’t dream of it.
“When you’re sitting on 95 points, it is a lot. It’s more points than I’ve ever taken as a manager, and if we could get to 98 next week, that would cap the season.”
AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley, on the other hand, was celebrating a precious point, despite his side having to overcome the loss of Tom Soares in the warm-up.
“With eight players out at the moment, and losing Tom in the warm-up, it was a tough ask,” said Ardley. “We were brave, we played 4-4-2, and I thought the first hour was our best chance of getting on top – and that’s how it proved. “The last half an hour was relentless, we knew it would be like that, but we put our bodies on the line and it was enough. “Towards the end it was all hands to the pump. “The keeper’s made some great saves, the defence have stood firm and we’ve all put in a shift. That’s five unbeaten now, and we need to just keep going now and get ourselves over the line.”