ANDY Gurney praised a fantastic display from his team after the Seagulls nearly humbled the league leaders at the Woodspring Stadium.

Weston 1

AFC Wimbledon 1

ANDY Gurney praised a fantastic display from his team after the Seagulls nearly humbled the league leaders at the Woodspring Stadium.

Manny Williams' missed a stoppage time penalty which would have handed Weston three points in front of a bumper crowd of 1,238.

But the manager said he was proud of his charges and the result proved they are good enough to match any team in the division.

He said: "In the second half we were fantastic and we made them look ordinary at times.

"It just shows how good we can be and everyone was different class.

"I told the players after the game how good they were and said it should give us belief."

Williams' dramatic penalty miss came after he was brought down by Ben Judge when clean through on goal.

The Dons defender saw red for the foul, but James Pullen denied Weston victory by saving the forward's second penalty of the game.

The division's leading scorer Jon Main put the South London side ahead with his 31st of the season in the second minute.

He took advantage of Seagulls skipper Charlie Comyn-Platt's failure to clear and beat Ryan Northmore from 15 yards.

Gurney was sent off at half-time following an argument with referee Barry Knight, so assistant manager Chris Smith took the reins for the second period.

As the game went on Weston got stronger and Williams scored a spot kick after 67 minutes after he was bundled over on the goal line following Marc McGregor's header down.

McGregor was unlucky not to score with a lob that would have put Weston ahead in ten minutes later.

His delicate effort from a narrow angle 20 yards from goal missed Pullen's post by inches.

But the referee played only seconds following Williams' second penalty to leave the game tied.

Weston now sit in 16th place with 37 points in the Conference South and are just two wins from the safety target Gurney set when he took over in November.

They travel to third-placed Eastleigh on Saturday, before taking on Team Bath at Twerton Park on Tuesday.