Johnnie Jackson admits AFC Wimbledon are struggling to adapt to life without “talisman” Ali Al-Hamadi as they slipped to a 1-0 home defeat to Crawley.
Striker Al-Hamadi joined Ipswich last month and the Dons missed his killer instinct as they dominated for long periods against Crawley but passed up several chances.
The likes of Josh Davison and deadline-day signing Josh Kelly both had opportunities, with the former seeing what looked a simple tap-in kept out by a superb save from Crawley goalkeeper Corey Addai.
The hosts’ wastefulness was punished with 12 minutes to go as Danilo Orsi finished following a long throw, his 15th league goal of the season.
“Ali’s not here, I can’t keep talking about Ali,” said Jackson, whose side missed the chance to move into the top seven.
“For me, he was the best player in the league and we’ve lost him, so that doesn’t help. When you lose your talisman, it makes things more difficult.
“The group brought in a good player who’s doing really well for the team, just hasn’t scored yet, so people are obviously going to highlight that.”
Filling the void left by Al-Hamadi was always going to be a tough task, but Jackson knows he has another problems too.
The Dons suffered yet another defensive injury against Crawley, with Crystal Palace loanee Kofi Balmer forced off with a hamstring issue.
Jackson added: “Obviously, there’s a number of things that aren’t going great for us at the minute with the injuries, losing our two centre-halves, another one tonight.
“Our captain’s been out for a long time, so it’s not been easy in that regard.
“But we need to be better, everyone needs to be better, all of us, if we’re going to get where we want to get to.”
Crawley boss Scott Lindsey saw his side move two points off the play-off places, although there are nine teams within just three points of Harrogate in seventh.
Lindsey said: “We’ve just got to make sure that we focus on ourselves.
“We feel that last play-off spot, no one’s really taken charge of it. Everyone’s messing around with it and we’re going to really focus and try and take it.
“We know there’s a long way to go, but we’re going to really focus on that.”
Tottenham's Odobert undergoes hamstring surgery
Tottenham have confirmed that Wilson Odobert has undergone surgery for a hamstring injury.
The 19-year-old joined Spurs from Burnley in August and made five appearances in all competitions for the north London side.
He managed just 162 minutes in his three Premier League matches, creating three chances in that time, but has not featured in the competition since their 1-0 loss to Arsenal in mid-September.
His last appearance was a two-minute cameo in the Europa League group stage amid ongoing hamstring problems.
"We can confirm that Wilson Odobert underwent surgery to his right hamstring yesterday (Saturday 16th November)," Spurs said on social media.
"The 19-year-old will continue to be closely monitored by our medical team to determine when he can return to training."
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
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