RYAN Johnson thanked AFC Wimbledon’s large travelling contingent following yesterday’s emphatic 3-0 derby win at rivals Sutton United.
Johnson opened the scoring by getting his head on the end of James Tilley’s inviting 64th minute free-kick.
Harry Pell headed home from an 80th minute corner just moments after coming off the bench to replace Omar Bugiel.
And Tilley wrapped up victory four minutes from time with his fourth goal since joining from Crawley Town this summer.
Almost 1,300 visiting supporters made the short trip to Gander Green Lane and went home happy after witnessing their side go third in League Two.
Johnson told afcwimbledon.co.uk: “They were unreal, they didn’t stop the whole game.
“From minute one to the end they were brilliant.
“I don’t think they stopped singing at all, it spurred us on.
“At both two and three up we wanted to get more goals and that’s because of our supporters.”
Johnson also heaped praise on his fellow goal scorers, pointing out it shows the welcome range of options manager Johnnie Jackson now has at his disposal.
The 26-year-old said: “I’m buzzing for Harry Pell to have scored our second goal.
“That’s testament to our squad – we take Omar Bugiel off and put Pelly on and he does exactly the same.
“He’s a nuisance and wins headers.
“James Tilley is different class. He’s a good lad as well.
“That sums up the group. We’re all good players and a good squad.
“He’s started the season on fire with four goals now in the last three games, and I hope he continues that form because it’s going to really help us out.”
Jackson was delighted to see Johnson get off the mark and was quick to share the credit with his coaching team.
The Dons boss explained: “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Rob (Tuvey), Terry (Skiverton) and Bazyo (Ashley Bayes) for the tireless work they do on those situations, offensively and defensively to make us solid.
“They do our homework on the opposition so that we can try and create opportunities.
“We know we’ve got great delivery with the boys putting it on the money.
“I feel like we should be scoring more from those situations.
“It’s nice to get off the mark today. Johno has got his first one and he’ll tell you that I’ve been on at him as I think he can score more, but we’re not going to complain too much today.”
Jackson is now looking forward to a week on the training ground with his unbeaten side ahead of Saturday’s clash with Forest Green followed by the exciting League Cup trip to Stamford Bridge.
He said: “We’ve had an unbelievably tough pre-season and the lads look so fit but since the season started we’ve had a midweek game every week. We’ve got another one coming up after getting through in the cup.
“We won’t take our foot off in terms of the work this week but we will look after the lads physically in the first part of the week before we hammer the preparations for Forest Green.”
