Loan star Halliday can lift us says Russ
ANOTHER home game goes past without a win for York, but boss Russ Wilcox believes he could have found the man to change all that in debutant Bradley Halliday.
Wilcox insists it is not all doom and gloom at Bootham Crescent after watching Halliday, who arrived from Middlesbrough last month, strut his stuff.
“It was down to poor defending – that’s what cost us the game,” he said.
“This was a freebie for Wimbledon and what they did is what we call managing the game. It made me frustrated and annoyed.
“We have to do the basics better. There could have been moments when we could have scored three or four goals.
“On the positive, the debut of Bradley Halliday was absolutely outstanding. What a terrific league debut he had and I will be feeding that to Middlesbrough and, hopefully, we can extend his loan.”
After Jake Goodman had put AFC Wimbledon in front, Diego De Girolamo got York on level terms as they went in search of a first home win of the season.
But two quickfire visiting goals from Sean Rigg and Matt Tubbs made it another dire day in from of their home fans for the Minstermen – even with Stephane Zubar grabbing one 15 minutes from time.
The Dons were the more confident side in the opening exchanges and they were rewarded were when a Goodman header put them in front.
That awoke York and a shot from Wes Fletcher was parried by James Shea, before a fantastic piece of defending from Dons captain Barry Fuller stopped Jake Hyde from sliding the ball into the net.
Morale was restored at the start of the second half when York equalised, thanks to a wonderful curling effort from De Girolamo.
But Wimbledon once again took full control, George Francombe setting up winger Rigg who expertly timed his run into the box before scoring from close range.
Things went from bad to worse for York when a cross from Francombe once again found Tubbs, who rose above Alex Cisak to head home.
A fine run by Halliday set up Zubar, another loanee, to slide in his first goal for the club, but that was as good as it got for the home fans.
AFC boss Neal Ardley said:“I knew York would be stronger than when we played them in the Cup because they’ve signed players on loan.
“The resilience we showed at the end when they threw everyone forward was fantastic.
“We had an attacking threat right through the game and looked like we would get in behind them.”