Match report
The Dons overcome an obdurate Altrincham to book a home tie with Workington in the Third Round of the FA Trophy. Dogged defending, great finishing and some rather generous refereeing all played significant roles in a game that, despite the scoreline, was in the balance right up the final whistle.
Terry Brown made five changes from the side that had comfortably beaten Mansfield Town three days earlier: the ineligible Nathan Elder, cup-tied Will Hendry and Glenn Poole, and injured Lewis Taylor and Danny Blanchett made way for Ross Montague, Danny Kedwell, Jay Conroy, Ricky Wellard and Paul Lorraine. But while the starting line-up still looked strong and capable of beating their mid-table opponents, of the four outfield players on the bench, only Derek Duncan was out of his teens.
Altrincham, in contrast, were weakened only by the absence of cup-tied striker John McAliskey, and they started the stronger. Nippy striker Chris Senior pulled wide on a couple of occasions, but poor passes by Anthony Danylyk and Tom Kearney prevented him from making the most of the space that Jay Conroy was offering him. It was only because of Altrincham’s inability to deliver a decent cross that Seb Brown had precious little to do in the opening 20 minutes.
Although Ross Montague was having his best game in a Dons shirt by some distance, looking assured and composed on the ball, Wimbledon were making little headway. Robbie Williams and James Smith dealt comfortably with Jon Main, Danny Kedwell having started the game in an advanced but evidently roving midfield role.
The visitors’ neat interplay forced a succession of corners midway through the half, but they were either over-hit or comfortably headed clear by Ben Judge and Paul Lorraine. The game was far from uneventful, but most of the events of note were taking place in the central areas, and clear-cut chances were few and far between. It was the type of game in which a moment of magic would make all the difference -- and four minutes before the break, Ricky Wellard provided one.
Following some extended Dons pressure, the lanky midfielder, growing in confidence with every game, took a Kennedy Adjei interception on the edge of the area, danced past two challenges, shifted the ball onto his favoured left foot and drove a low, skidding shot into the bottom right corner of Russell Saunders’ net. That, however, was not the defining moment of the half.
Just two minutes later, Senior broke clear of the Dons defence, latching onto a pass from Smith, and as Seb Brown came haring out of his goal the striker tumbled theatrically over the keeper’s challenge, when it seemed he could easily have taken the ball round Brown and slotted it into an unguarded net from 25 yards. Cue frantic appeals for a red card from the Altrincham bench, but as both Conroy and Judge had positioned themselves between Senior and the goal, the referee quite correctly showed Brown only a yellow card. Alty boss Graham Heathcote was incensed, aiming a volley of foul-mouthed abuse in the direction of the Dons fans behind the visitors’ bench, and to make matters worse the free-kick came to nothing, leaving Wimbledon’s lead intact at half-time.
The Dons had only barely deserved their lead, but four minutes into the second half they doubled it. Main pounced on a cute Sam Hatton pass, and as Saunders came out he slipped the ball past him and into the goal from 15 yards for his 14th goal of the season. Heathcote decided that a double change was needed, replacing Kearney and Matt Doughty with Nick Clee and former Crewe striker Colin Little, and for the next 20 minutes there was only one side in it. Brown made three good saves from Little, Senior and Chris Denham, the visitors forced five corners in quick succession, and for the first time for two months the Dons looked as though as they might not just concede, but cave in.
On the hour Danylyk pulled a goal back when his 25-yarder found the top corner via Brown’s forearm, and it seemed only a matter of time before Altrincham would equalise. Thankfully for the Dons, and Jay Conroy in particular, the visitors failed to make the most of the space the home side were giving them on the right flank. On several occasions they were again let down by poor delivery and weak finishes, Brown comfortably collecting shots and crosses that really should have given him far more to think about.
Altrincham’s day was about to get worse, though. After Greg Young had spurned a great chance to equalise when he headed wide from only six yards out, the Dons forced a corner of their own. The ball found its way to Paul Lorraine, whose shot hit a defender and looped up into the air. Young inexplicably sent his clearing header across the six-yard box to a gaggle a waiting Wimbledon players, of whom Jon Main reacted first -- and although his header was cleared off the line by Williams, the ball fell kindly for Ben Judge, who hammered it home from eight yards for his first AFC Wimbledon goal.
There was still time for the visitors to mount several potentially dangerous attacks, but two pieces of bad luck really summed up their night. First, Denham had a goal ruled out for offside with seven minutes to go when it appeared that Lorraine was playing him on, and then three minutes later Senior got behind the out-of-position Conroy, who then grabbed a handful of his shirt and bundled him to the ground as the striker bore down on goal. Even the most fervent Dons fan was expecting Conroy to see red for the second time this season (his first, at Ebbsfleet in September, was for a similar but far less calculated pull), but extraordinarily the referee waved play on and didn’t even award Altrincham a free-kick. That was surely one of the season’s oddest decisions, but the grateful Dons were through.
www.altyfans.co.uk » General Category » Altrincham FC First Team
Match report from the AFC Wimbledon site
Author
Topic: Match report from the AFC Wimbledon site (Read 1226 times)