They may have been knocked out of the FA Cup, but Neal Ardley hailed AFC Wimbledon’s performance against Coventry City as the best under his stewardship.
For an hour on Friday night, the Dons out-played their high-flying guests and only Joe Murphy in the Sky Blues goal kept them at bay.
He was beaten on 53 minutes, when Michael Smith’s header broke the deadlock, pictured.
However, from then on the key figure was Dons keeper Seb Brown, who had only been called upon half an hour before kick-off when regular number one Ross Worner was stuck in traffic.
The unfortunate Brown dropped a clanger to gift the Sky Blues an equaliser, and eventual passage into the second round, as Dons finally succumbed 3-1.
Shake on it: Dons and Sky Blues at the end of the night SP80566
However, at the final whistle Ardley was fizzing with pride, as well as disbelief at the series of miraculous saves pulled off by Murphy.
“Unless I was watching a different game, I thought we were fantastic,” he said.
“I would have been disappointed if my team had let me down, or did not do the club proud, but that is as close to as good a performance from our team since I have been in charge.”
He added: “Goals change games, and their goalkeeper was man of the match – what does that tell you?
“He was fantastic, I don’t know how he has made a couple of those saves. We could have been 2-0 up at half-time.”
He added: “Until they scored in that mad five-minute spell, where they scored the second, they did not have a chance.”
Brown, who was dropped soon after Ardley arrived as manager for a series of nervy mistakes, cut a disconsolate figure at the end, but his boss refused to point fingers of blame.
“Nothing any of us can say will pick Seb up, but I have told him to keep his head up,” he said.
“I don’t want to focus on one thing that Seb has done, I want to focus on the whole club – I thought we were excellent.”
Meanwhile, former AFC Wimbledon striker Kaid Mohamed has returned to the Cherry Red Records stadium on a loan deal until January 4.
The former Dons favourite has made the temporary move from League One Port Vale, two years after leaving south west London for Cheltenham.
Mohamed, 29, bagged five goals in nine appearances in helping fire AFC Wimbledon to the Football League in a short spell under Terry Brown.
After signing for Cheltenham, Mohamed would score 18 goals in 76 games before opting to join Port Vale last summer.
Dons welcome Portsmouth to the CRRS this weekend as League Two action gets back underway.
Happy: Smith contemplates his opener before it all went wrong for the Dons SP80566
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