AFC Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson took the positives out of Tuesday night’s 0-0 draw at home to Grimsby Town despite his side failing to follow up their thrilling victory over MK Dons at Plough Lane last weekend.
The Dons’ Jack Currie forced a good save from Harvey Cartwright and then the goalkeeper prevented Jake Reeves’ fierce shot finding the top corner.
Grimsby’s Donovan Wilson went close for the visitors when he struck the crossbar.
Ronan Curtis, who scored the 94th-minute winner against MK Dons, couldn’t control a long ball forward that could have taken him in on goal late on.
The Dons are tenth in League Two, three points off the play-offs.
“It takes us a point closer to the play-offs but we came here to win tonight, that’s what we wanted out of it. It’s never that simple against an opponent that’s fighting for their lives at the other end of the division. They made it a difficult night for us and we weren’t at our best,” Jackson said on the Dons’ website.
“We had the better moments but ultimately it was important that we didn’t lose. We need to keep racking up the points and see where it takes us.
“I think we’re defending really well. We probably didn’t create as much as I would have liked. We weren’t clinical enough. The best opportunities came from deliveries into the box, we had a couple of headers through [James] Tilley and Ronan Curtis in the second half.
“I can’t fault the effort to keep the clean sheets. We need to be expansive in possession, braver on the ball and keep improving.”
Key attacker Omar Bugiel was carrying an injury. “He felt his groin in the warm-up which was a blow pre-game,” Jackson said. “He’s instrumental to what we do. You can see from tonight that he’s really important. We’ll assess how he is further in the coming days.”
Wimbledon travel to fourteenth-place Notts County on Saturday.
Jackson said: “We’ve got four points in the space of three days, which is a good output. We need to take a lot of credit and not beat ourselves up.
“We had a good result against Notts County here and we’ll be looking to take the game to them.”
