Match report
Karl Beckford came into the first team for his first start of the season and tucked away two penalties, but the Dons could still not get back into winning ways at Leyton. While the introduction of Giuliani Grazioli made sure there were more bodies in the box, the wide players in particular failed to convert their dominance over their respective full backs into danger in the area.
After giving his season-starting eleven a vote of confidence at Boreham Wood on Tuesday, and then presumably regretting it, Terry Brown made changes by omitting the transfer-listed Richard Jolly, who was rumoured to be unavailable anyway, and bringing in Karl Beckford for the rested Sam Hatton.
Antony Howard came in for his first start of the season, while Luke Garrard stepped down to the bench to allow Jake Leberl to move to the right back spot. The Dons' game took its by-now usual pattern, with the ball being played out wide to Finn and Ferguson to try to get behind the full backs with their pace and trickery. This they did, with what must have seemed like alarming regularity to the Leyton manager, but neither of them seemed able to make the final telling pass or cross.
Meanwhile, Jason Goodliffe, possibly still settling in to a new relationship in the centre of the back four, almost gave away a goal with a misjudged header back to Little that merely served up a chance on a plate for Leyton. Fortunately for Goodliffe the lob went a couple of feet wide and the team, and crowd, could breath again. Round about the same time, Grazioli had a similar chance but, perhaps because he was still finding his feet, he saw his lob go over the advancing goalkeeper but well wide of the post.
But the team didn’t need such chances as Leyton laid one on a plate. Webb was clearly pushed as he went for a cross – it was not clear why as he was not likely to pose a major threat from beyond the far post – and the referee pointed to the spot. Webb having missed the Dons’ last penalty, Beckford stepped up and it was 1-0.
However, Leberl was struggling in the right back role and, as Terry Brown told Ferguson in no uncertain terms, was not getting the covering he needed from his wide man. It was no surprise then that, on the half hour, the equaliser came from that flank when Bricknall got ahead of Howard to slip the ball home from a left wing cross.
Leyton didn’t get another chance to score until the second half but Fergie did, hitting a well-struck volley just wide and then trying another one when he had plenty of time to bring the ball down and move in on the goalkeeper. Terry Brown was again vocal in letting him know what he thought of that one.
Ferguson probably had the Dons best chances in the game as, in addition to these volleys, he was clean through twice in the second half but lost control the first time and failed to worry the goalkeeper, with a weak shot for the second chance. The conundrum is, of course, that his pace had created the chances in the first place, as well as earning the covering Cox a booking for bringing him down just a little bit too cynically.
Then Leyton took the lead, with another good goal that was helped by uncertain defending by the Dons back four. While Fergie might frustrate his manager and fans, it was another run of his that won a second penalty, again taken by Beckford. The penalty was given away by Cox who got a final warning for the trip; it was a final warning because the referee chose to ignore a blatant trip by Cox on Ferguson a couple of minutes later.
Howard went off to allow Garrard to go right back. Garrard was clearly going to show manager Brown what he had been missing and, in that frenetic way of his, he did. But while Finn and Ferguson continued to go past Leyton players as if they weren’t there, they couldn’t get the ball into the area and Grazioli was left to make his runs with little hope that the ball would arrive on time.
Overall, this was a brighter performance from the Dons going forward and, with better final ball, it would surely have led to a clear win. But it didn’t and, with two points from the last fifteen, the management team will welcome the week’s respite before the FA Cup game at Cray, although Grazioli cannot play in that game and Messrs Brown and Cash must be wondering where the goals will come from |
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