AFC Wimbledon may be exciting going forward, so now Neal Ardley is turning his attention to making them miserly at the back.

Dons have scored 20 goals in 12 League Two games this season to be joint top of the goal-scoring charts with Bury and Northampton Town.

However, they have conceded 19 – the fourth worst in the 24-team league ahead of Accrington Stanley, Carlisle United and Dagenham & Redbridge.

But the pressure to shut out the opposition does not rest on the shoulders of the back four alone, a Dons ethos Ardley is keen to promote.

He said: “We need to find the key to not being so open at the back and be more solid when we have not got the ball - that lies with the back eight.

“We know our two centre forwards are not going to be running around like headless chickens in defence, so the midfield play a crucial role in not leaving the back four exposed.

“Our wide players are expected to get forward and provide crosses, but also they’re expected to help out the midfield and the defence.

“There’s a lot of onus on the wide players, they’re the one we’re working the hardest on and they are really producing.”

He added: “Overall, keeping clean sheets is a collective job and they’ve done well.

“But we have conceded 19 goals and that tells its own tale.”

After Dons toppled league leaders Bury last weekend, they go to the new leaders Wycombe Wanderers this weekend.

And they go there with a clean bill of health and, save for Dannie Bulman’s suspension, a full squad.

Ardley said: “I have to pay credit to the players, physios and medical staff, and how they use sports science medicine.

“We all work hard together to recover and we don’t over-train the players.

“A lot of players have played a lot of games and, touch wood, we’ve not had a muscle strain in the first team and that is very hard thing to do with the load we’ve had so far.”