Neal Ardley: AFC Wimbledon boss happy to stay after Gillingham link

Neal Ardley's AFC Wimbledon side lost 2-1 to Liverpool in the FA Cup third round this season

AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley says he turned down a Gillingham approach as he wants to see out his Dons "project".

The 42-year-old had been strongly linked as Peter Taylor's replacement at the League One side.

"Gillingham have gone about it the right way - they asked the question to the club. I spoke to [chief executive] Erik Samuelson about it," he said.

"We both decided we're on a project here. This is my club. It's not the right time for me to be leaving."

He added: "I want to try and achieve something here, and hopefully long may that continue."

Ardley's side, who reached the FA Cup third round this season, are currently 13th in League Two following Saturday's 3-1 defeat against Carlisle.

But he was not happy with how his side let the Cumbrians come back into the game after Adebayo Akinfenwa had given the Dons a first-minute lead.

"We've got to stop being naive because we've given away a silly free-kick, we've then not defended that free-kick that's made it 1-1," he told BBC London 94.9.

"Then we've made a mistake around the edge of our area and been punished for that and then they broke on us very quickly. We didn't have enough balance."