AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley could not hide his disdain for referee Gavin Ward after a frustrating night at Cambridge United.

It was a tale of two saved penalties as Dons were held to a 0-0 draw at the Abbey stadium, leaving them seven points off the League Two play-offs.

Adebayo Akinfenwa saw his second half spot-kick saved by former Northampton Town team-mate Chris Dunn.

Moments later, James Shea performed heroics to push Robbie Simpson’s penalty round the post – but Ardley was more concerned with the decision to penalise Sammy Moore for handball.

He said: “My first instinct is that the penalty against us was really harsh – we were told by referees at the start of the season in a meeting that unless it’s a deliberate handball in the box it won’t be given.

“The United lad has blasted it against our guy from a yard out, but my instinct is that the ref could not wait to give the penalty, and that disappoints me.”

He added: “There is previous with this referee, we’ve had him twice before and both times he has been controversial.

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“We’ve had it in writing that he was wrong in an incident at Bristol Rovers two years ago when Michael Smith was clean through on goal and was brought down for a penalty.

“The ref booked Michael, gave a free-kick to the opposition, when it should have been a penalty and a sending off, and we went on to lose 3-0.

“It was a game changing moment that we’ve had confirmation saying that he got it wrong.

“We’ve had him since and he hasn’t done great, and I will be annoyed if I look at that penalty against United and he’s got it wrong again.”

Ardley is on his travels again this weekend when Dons make the long trip to bottom club Hartlepool, looking to continue a run of just one defeat in seven.

“They are fighting for their lives, these next couple of games for them could make or break their season,” Ardley said.

“They will be throwing everything at it and we have to be ready for that.

“It’s a long journey up there, and in many ways it is a tougher game than Luton at home. Luton at home has a great atmosphere and everyone is up for it.”

Ardley defended the four changes he made to the side which beat Luton Town on Saturday, with Moore, Jack Smith, Adebayo Azeez and Tom Beere coming into the side at the expense of Sean Rigg, Callum Kennedy, Dannie Bulman and Craig Tanner.

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He said: “When you have games on Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, etc. there are not many who can handle that without getting injured and I don’t want to injure my players.

“I want to freshen up in areas where I can – some people will ask why are we freshening up, we should keep the same team – but you need a high level of performance and I need players capable of that.

“Sammy Moore came in and performed at a high level, and now Dannie Bulman is freshened a bit and on Saturday he should be able to perform at his usual high level.

“We have a good enough squad to do this and that’s a great thing to have.”

He added: “Jack Smith has been out for a while and he said he was running on empty for the last 10 minutes, which is what you want, it’s great.

“Callum Kennedy was running on empty on Saturday, so we’ve freshened him up and he’s been outstanding.

“It’s great to have these options and I believe we have the best team we’ve ever had and against Cambridge I believe we played some excellent football, got into some great positions, we just did not have that finishing touch we should have had.

“In the end though, we should have won comfortably.”