Jackson hails Assal and team-mates for providing him with best result of Dons tenure so far

Johnnie Jackson declared that AFC Wimbledon’s 2-0 win against League Two leaders Leyton Orient on Tuesday night was his finest moment as Dons’ boss to date.

First-half goals from Ayoub Assal and Harry Pell guided Jackson’s men to victory at Plough Lane, and goalkeeper Nick Tzanev was rarely troubled in a confident Wimbledon performance.

The former Charlton boss has now overseen a six-match unbeaten run following an underwhelming start to his tenure at the club, but he felt this win was the most impressive of the lot.

He said: “The nature of this win; the performance, the opposition, the home crowd under the lights. I think that was our finest moment of my time here so far.

“That performance was coming. We now have a little bit of momentum about us. It’s building gradually.

“I think you can see that we are a team that is starting to gel.”

Jackson reserved special praise for Assal after the 20-year-old playmaker was heavily involved in both Wimbledon goals.

“We’ve been working a lot with him in training and in terms of analysis to try and get him to shoot more.

“He gets in unbelievable positions and sometimes looks for a pass or to beat the defender twice, and we want him to start taking more shots and scoring more goals.

“We’re delighted with the goal tonight. It gets a deflection; it shows that he’s taking shots on that he wouldn’t have a few weeks ago.”

The 40-year-old also stated that he believed the Dons are starting to look like the team he wants them to be after a slow start saw him win just three of his first 15 league games at the helm.

“It’s a really good group. They’re an honest bunch. We felt like we were underachieving but there are reasons for that,” he said.

“This needs to be the standard now because we have shown that we are capable of it.

“It can’t just be that you’re playing the league leaders at home in a London derby that you reach these levels of performance. We have to try and bring that every week.”