Johnnie Jackson says he will remember his 41st birthday fondly after guiding his AFC Wimbledon side to a 2-0 win at his former club Colchester.
After a goalless first half, James Tilley gave the Dons the lead when he converted from close range after Josh Neufville had escaped down the left and crossed.
Tilley then sealed the Dons’ lead in the 85th minute when he finished clinically after being found by Neufville in the area.
The Dons were well worth their win and their margin of victory might well have been even greater, had Neufville’s stoppage-time effort not come off the underside of the crossbar and bounced to safety.
Dons boss Jackson said: “Forty-one is a bit of a stinker as far as birthdays go but I’ll remember my 41st now, that’s for sure.
“It was the complete away performance.
“We created numerous opportunities; I think we had 14 shots in the first half and should have been a couple up at half-time.
“You’re just hoping that you can repeat that performance and not rue those missed chances but I think we came out second half and doubled down again and scored two great goals.
“We were also really solid defensively so I think we were well worth the win.
“We had a good summer with recruitment and did the work that we wanted to do and brought in the players that we highlighted. We worked tirelessly at that and we needed to.
“We got our group together really early which was massively beneficial, so we’ve had a lot of time to work with them.”
Colchester produced a disappointing display, with John Akinde’s first-half effort saved by Alex Bass the closest they came to scoring.
Us head coach Ben Garner admits his side were well beaten.
Garner said: “There’s no sugar-coating that – it was absolutely nowhere near good enough from us.
“We didn’t work hard enough, we didn’t compete enough, we were second best and Wimbledon thoroughly deserved to win.
“I’m scratching my head a little bit as to where that’s come from and why we were that way. We got bullied to be honest.
“They out-worked us, they out-fought us; I think we have too many at the moment who think they can just turn up and play and it’s easy, and it’s not.
“It’s League Two and you’ve got to scrap, you’ve got to fight and you’ve got to work as the baseline.
“They’ve had 21 shots on our goal and that’s a million miles away from where it should be.
“Owen (Goodman) did pretty well again tonight and I thought young Jayden (Fevrier) was the only outfield player that was at the level expected and that’s not good enough.”
