Luke Garrard: I'm fighting for my Dons future

Thursday, 07 January 2010

By John Stanton

LUKE Garrard knows he has six months to save his AFC Wimbledon career and to prove he has a future at the club.

The 24-year-old - the Dons' longest-serving player along with keeper Andy Little - returned to Kingsmeadow over Christmas after a three-month loan period at Ryman Premier Division outfit Boreham Wood.

That spell has helped the livewire defender regain full match fitness for the first time in a year, after missing the second half of last season with cruciate knee ligament damage.

And after returning to South London and coming on as a substitute in the 1-0 defeat at Hayes & Yeading at the weekend, Garrard was honest in his assessment of what he needs to do during the second part of the Blue Square Premier campaign.

“I’ve got six months to earn a deal,” Garrard told the South London Press. “I’ve done nothing for the first half of the season so I’ve got up until May to get into the manager’s thoughts and to do enough to make him think I’m worth keeping.

“I’ll fight for my life at the club. For me it was a massive achievement just to start the season after the injury I had. Now I have to go again.”

Garrard is only too aware that there are some at Kingsmeadow who think his time at the club is nearing an end.

“I read the fans’ forum and I know I’ve got a lot of doubters out there,” added the former Swindon and Spurs defender.

“I never used to look at the message boards but when I was out injured I wanted to get an idea of what the fans were thinking so I started to log on.

“There are some lovely people at the club who wish me well on my Facebook page before games and who are good as gold with me, but some people have doubts about my ability.

“That is absolutely fine with me - they pay their money and they’re entitled to their opinion. I have no problem whatsoever with that, but I want to show them that they’re wrong."

For the full story and all the latest Dons news, see Friday's South London Press.

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