AFC Wimbledon manager Terry Brown regards Saturday's 0-0 draw at home to Cambridge United as a point gained rather than two dropped, and he spoke highly of United's leading scorer Chris Holroyd.
The Blue Square South champions contributed to an entertaining match with chances for both sides, but the defences came out on top on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
"I think this was a point gained against a very good Cambridge side," said the former Aldershot boss. "They caused us all kinds of problems, especially in the first half, and the runs that Holroyd made killed us at times.
"But after about half an hour, I felt our back two got to grips with it a little bit and they defended channel-side and dropped off a yard or two in a similar way that we did against Grays, and that shows that it is still a big learning curve for us. We like to push our fullbacks forward and that leaves a space in areas behind the centre backs, and teams are ready to exploit that and we have to deal with that."
The Dons have faced Luton, Oxford and Cambridge in their first four home games, and have been beaten only once (1-0 by Oxford), taking a point from the other two, which Brown feels bodes well for the rest of their first season in the Blue Square Premier.
"I thought at times Cambridge looked better than us, but what really pleased me was we can look at the Luton, Oxford and now Cambridge games and there are times that all three were better than us, but we keep digging away and fighting.
"In all three games in the last 20 minutes we have looked like scoring goals and in all three games we should have had two or three more goals as we have buried teams in the last 20 minutes - we just have to finish off these good opportunities.
"The game didn't warrant a nil-nil," he continued. "It was a very open game and fair play to Martin Ling who brought his side down here and attacked us and played very well.
"Cambridge are a good side and they will be in the play-offs, it's just up to us to work as hard as we can in training sessions between now and Saturday to make sure that we can stay on the coat tails of the likes of Cambridge."
On Holroyd, Brown added, "Cambridge need to hang on to Holroyd because if they let him go it will be very difficult to replace his quality.
"Oxford and Luton have more resources than Cambridge to buy players but if Holroyd stays with Cambridge they will cause a lot of teams lots of problems. He could well be the difference between Cambridge and the other play-off contenders."
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