AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley piled the praise on his side after a 1-1 draw at 10-man Leyton Orient on Saturday.

The Dons fell behind to a Jay Simpson goal early on, and the hosts were reduced to 10 men on the hour when John Marquis was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Despite dominating possession, it took the Dons until 10 minutes from time before Adebayo Akinfenwa headed them level to ensure a share of the spoils.

The draw leaves Ardley’s men four points off the League Two play-offs ahead of a two-week break.

“For the first 20 they were better than us, they were snappier to second balls and won a lot of aerial duels,” he said.

“We got punished by their first really good attack, but we had not really got out of the blocks.

“We tweaked our shape and from that moment on we were the better team.”

A Don from across the pond: I love the smell of Radio WDON in the morning

AFC Wimbledon: Ardley accuses ref of lying over time added on at Leyton Orient

He added: “I can't fault the boys, they've done everything they can to win the game but just found a couple of obstacles in the way.

“We’ve drawn a game we should have won and we have to take it on the chin."

Ardley would not blame his Dons for not breaking down the 10 men of Orient, and also hailed a fine save from the hosts’ keeper Alex Cisak.

He said: "We started the second half brilliantly again on the front foot, it was all us and then the sending off sometimes can make it harder because they just sat in at that point and we just had to keep going.

“It is really hard when teams sit in, they literally had six in a line across the box – at League Two level you cannot have the intricacies at times, like Man City, to break them down.

“We had to keep going, we had our fullbacks playing as wingers, and we put bundles of balls in the box, and you’re just hoping that you get on the end of one.

“We got on the end of one that should have won the game, and the keeper has made a fantastic save.”