Ardley eyes new Wimbledon loan recruits

Tuesday, November 20, 2012
9:27 AM

AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley is looking to strengthen his squad before the emergency loan market closes later this week.

On loan midfielders George Francomb and Steve Gregory are set to return to their parent clubs before the end of the year and as the injuries pile up the Dons chief is keen to draft in more support.

“We played three strikers on Saturday because we had to,” Ardley told afcwimbledon.co.uk. “A look at the injury list tells you all you need to know. It was the best 11 that I could put out on Saturday and unfortunately it did not quite gel. It was not a decision that we made.

“With the Christmas period coming up and the fact that George Francomb and Steven Gregory will be going back before then, it is certainly something that we need to look at. But we only have three days to do it and we have a game in the middle of that so it is by no means easy.”

Neal Ardley is set to welcome midfielder Francomb back for tonight’s League Two match against Southend United against Kingsmeadow.

The Norwich midfielder has missed the last two AFC Wimbledon matches with a shin injury

The Dons entertain an in-form Southend side tonight with Paul Sturrock’s men now closing in on the play-off zone after an impressive 4-1 win at Torquay United on Saturday. And Ardley is under no illusions that it will be a tough task to contain their threat.

“It will be difficult as the reports we had said that they played very well and caused Torquay all sorts of problems,” he said.

“We are going to have to be on it as a team to make sure that we get something from the game. We got a point on Saturday and we probably would not have got that from a similar situation six weeks ago.

“We hung in there and showed a bit of grit and we have to take the positives from that.”