AFC WIMBLEDON manager Neal Ardley conceded that his team did not do enough to beat Swindon Town during Saturday’s stalemate.

Although he was pleased that his side were able to restrict Town as an attacking threat, Ardley was disappointed that they failed to offer much themselves in the final third either at Kingsmeadow.

Ardley had prepared his side to face Swindon’s 3-5-2 formation, so was playing catch-up early on in the game when they set-up with a new-look line-up.

“It was a tough game. Swindon are very good at what they do with their expansive style of play,” said Ardley.

“They’ve been playing with three at the back all season and that can cause problems with the defence and middle third. Today they changed to a four and we had to get to grips with that.

“In the second half we tried to be better on the ball but I think overall it was a poor game and a good point as much as you want to win at home because it keeps a good run going especially in a game where we weren’t at our best. We saw the game out and got something from it.

“Because they are quite open and play through the thirds if you start going gung-ho and you get your press wrong going forward they can pick you off. There was once or twice in the first half where we got it wrong.

“We wanted to hurt and penetrate down the sides and get our crosses in but that was a feature that let us down today. We didn’t penetrate enough and when we did we hit the first man or the goalie.

“Swindon solve problems on the pitch, if you press them high they will work out a way of playing beyond the press. If you run the goalie down he is confident enough to pick people out so we had to have our wits about us to limit them to very little.”

The Dons had the best opportunity to snatch a winner when they were awarded a penalty in the first half, with Town stopper Lawrence Vigouroux saving Lyle Taylor’s effort, but there was otherwise few clear-cut chances for either side.

The decision to award that was controversial as Tom Elliott appeared to go down in the box despite Conor Thomas avoiding contact with the Dons striker but Ardley felt a spot-kick was the right decision.

He said: “It looked like a penalty from where I was because of the way Tom went down – his legs went over the back of his head – it is not a natural thing to do yourself.”