Match report
They weren’t at their best, but AFC Wimbledon moved into Monday’s draw for the first round proper of the FA Carlsberg Trophy with a 2-1 win over Northwood. When Elliott Buchanan lobbed the ball over Danny Knowles inside 60 seconds, home fans may have feared the worst. But the Dons regrouped, put their foot on the ball a bit more and finally eased their way past the Ryman One North side, with second half goals from Sam Hatton and Jake Leberl.
Terry Brown was unable to call upon new signings Jon Main and Reggie Savage because they were ‘cup tied’, so he elected to go back to his 4-5-1 strategy with Steve Ferguson returning on the right wing and Mark De Bolla playing a freer central role. Rob Quinn made way for Sam Hatton as the Dons looked to overcome their striker shortage with more attacking intent in midfield. Marcus Gayle made a welcome return to the squad but had to settle for a place on the bench.
Less than a minute after kick-off the visitors were ahead. Wimbledon cleared the ball up field but it was punted back with interest into the left hand channel, catching Antony Howard off guard. Elliott Buchanan breezed past the centre half and although Danny Knowles sprinted off his line to clear the danger, the striker was quicker to the ball and lifted his half volley over the stranded keeper from the edge of the box.
Shell-shocked, the hosts took a full ten minutes to recover sufficiently and make a goal scoring opportunity. Steve Ferguson cut in from the touchline and fired a left footer that whisked past the right hand post. Moments later Sam Hatton robbed a Northwood defender on the edge of the box and clipped his shot just over the bar.
On the quarter hour mark the Woods could, and perhaps should, have extended their lead. Adrian Abramian went round Howard and squared for Buchanan who created a yard of space but scuffed his effort well wide.
A Sam Hatton free-kick from deep caused problems for the Northwood defence as his bullet delivery glanced off Howard’s head, floating high and wide of the left hand post, but not by much.
The home side grew in confidence and slowly started to turn up the pressure. Mark De Bolla rifled in a free kick from 25 yards that forced Mitch Swain to tip over for a corner. The same player would have virtually a carbon copy situation a few minutes later, but he elected to curl this one after Northwood added bodies to the wall. The keeper saw it all the way and gathered comfortably.
Woods’ winger Danny Hart rounded Knowles to score but had already been flagged offside to the delight of the Tempest End. It would serve as a useful reminder to the men in blue that their opponents could hurt them so they needed to start forcing the issue.
Tony Finn and Michael Haswell worked an opening on the left for De Bolla, who spun on a sixpence but blazed over the bar from ten yards. The former Ebbsfleet man quickly returned the favour playing Finn into space. The Dons wide man mustered a daisy cutter that bobbled wide of the mark. On 29 minutes De Bolla went close again from a dead ball situation swinging his effort around the wall and missing the top left corner by inches.
Towards the break there were chances at either end. Swain was alert to Jake Leberl’s strike from distance and collected easily, before Abramian bullied his way through two Goodliffe challenges, drilling his shot straight at Knowles. The aptly named Jazz Rose improvised an audacious half-volley attempt from 45 yard but it sailed into the Tempest End, and then Goodliffe stole in at the back post to meet Finn’s cross but could only stab the ball into Swain’s arms.
Half time came and the home supporters pondered a performance lacking nothing in endeavour, but for all their possession the Wombles had created just one chance of note inside the penalty area.
Northwood picked their way through the Dons defence two minutes after the restart but Buchanan’s rush of blood meant he failed to test Knowles from 15 yards.
It was the final warning the hosts needed and they equalised on 51 minutes with a beautifully crafted counter-attacking strike. Finn and De Bolla broke from midfield, working the ball out to Garrard on the right. The full back crossed early, Ferguson flicked it on and Sam Hatton arrived at the back post to convert from close range.
Incredibly, AFC Wimbledon nearly gifted their opponents a goal almost immediately. Knowles’ careless throw out to Haswell on the left was intercepted by Abdul Yoki and he squared for Hart who struck it well, forcing the loan keeper to rectify his error with a decent save low to his left.
Finn and De Bolla continued to terrorise Northwood, engineering a cross for Hatton, whose header was pushed over the bar by Swain. The Northwood keeper was soon in action again, this time parrying a close range drive from Finn after a little bit of penalty box magic characteristic to the Dons’ top scorer.
More pressure from the hosts was nearly rewarded when Leberl’s deep cross picked out Daniel Webb but the Dons target man was beaten to the ball by Rose’s brilliant last-ditch diving header and the ball ballooned away for a corner.
De Bolla pinged the resultant set-piece to the near post and Leberl arrived, thundering a header past Swain for his fourth goal in all competitions.
On 70 minutes the Dons’ chief decided to give the fans what they really wanted, introducing Marcus Gayle into the fray for his first senior appearance since 2 October. A smattering of substitutions followed from both teams but Wimbledon continued pressing forward to the best effect.
Garrard latched on to a loose ball in the Northwood box and forced another fine block from the busy Swain. Gayle then teed up De Bolla twenty yards out but the man of the match couldn’t cap his fine display with a goal, blasting into the stand behind the goal.
The Woods, to their credit, kept their heads up and created some nervous moments in the Dons’ penalty box without manufacturing a clear-cut scoring opportunity. A scramble ensued moments before the end but came to nothing. As the ball was hammered up field, the referee blew for full time, a sound met with a mixture of delight and relief by the home fans. |
