Neal Ardley has urged AFC Wimbledon fans to stick by the team as they find their feet in League One.

The Dons went down 2-1 at home to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday meaning they are yet to win a league match in two attempts.

Ardley’s side opened the scoring after Andy Barcham curled an effort into the bottom right-hand corner.

However, goals from Gary Madine and Liam Trott in either half turned the result on its head.

The boss is not unduly concerned, but has asked for fans’ patience ahead of Tuesday night’s visit of Scunthorpe United to the Cherry Red Records stadium.

He said: “The first 20 minutes were excellent, everything we worked on we did.

“Then our levels dropped a bit, we started to give them a bit of control, but even then they hadn’t really opened us up.

“All we can do is work at it and our game. We weren’t out-run today against a big strong powerful team.

“We had a go and in just a couple of key moments we let ourselves down.”

Having now conceded eight goals in three games, Ardley admitted that one thing which will help the Dons’ cause is working on their clean sheet record.

He said: “If we can tidy things up and get the clean sheets back into the team we will be fine.

“I’ll always urge the fans to stick with us, it’s not going to be an easy ride in this league, but if we do all that we’ll be fine.”

The Dons lost 3-1 at Walsall in their opening game of the League One season, meaning they are yet to register a point in the league.

Ardley said: “Momentum is everything and we’ve just got to find that.

“We’ve got firepower and different options, so if we can cut out one or two silly things, then it will be fine.”