Calm heads and clean sheets

Experienced Dons defender wants a return to early season form

19 August 2022

Straight-talking Lee Brown has called for calm heads and a return to clean sheets, before a trip to West Sussex tomorrow afternoon for our clash with Crawley.

Tuesday’s 5-2 defeat at Mansfield Town ended our unbeaten start to League Two life, but our experienced defender who arrived from Portsmouth in the January window has detailed the work that has gone on since.

“We’ve been working on our mentality when we go in front,” said Lee after training today. “We’ve spoken about what we do late on in games. We’re all working hard behind the scenes to put things right.

“I don’t think it’s a problem yet. It’s happened early in the season, so we can rectify things. I don’t think it’s a crisis by any means. Let’s just steady the ship and hopefully we can get back to keeping clean sheets. We got two earlier on in the season, so let’s get back to that and go from there."

PSI_PT_Mansfield_Town_AFC_Wimbledon_16AUG22_PT_0064.jpg

“I think it’s been a steady start, clearly it was a disappointing result on Tuesday night, but it’s a long way to go in the season. We’re four games in and we’ve won one, drawn two and lost one. We’ve got to look to bounce back on Saturday. I don’t think we’ve started too badly, but obviously we don’t want to be conceding five goals very often.

“One thing I would say is that the togetherness of the squad is really good at the moment. It’s something we worked on throughout pre-season and throughout the season so far to keep a tight-knit group.”

PSI_MB_Hartlepool_United_AFC_Wimbledon_06AUG22_0084.JPG

Saturday's hosts Crawley have picked up one point, with just Newport County and Rochdale below them in the table at this early stage.

“Every player wants to be part of a spicy game,” said Lee. “It should be a good atmosphere, but for us we do want to get back to keeping clean sheets and winning football matches. We just need to focus on our jobs, having done a bit of tactical work this morning.

“I think League Two is a little bit slower paced than League One, but there are still some very good players in here. The last thing we can do is disrespect the league and think it’s going to be easy, because no league is easy. I know that when you come down from a league that you automatically think you’re just going to cruise games and win them, but it’s never the case, so let’s not disrespect the league.”

You can see the full interview with Lee Brown below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.

Match Reports

Dons double crushes Crawley!

Wimbledon back to winning ways

20 August 2022

Johnnie Jackson’s side emerged as comfortable 2-0 winners at the Broadfield Stadium as we swept Crawley Town aside on Saturday afternoon.

Nathan Young-Coombes lit the blue touch paper early on with his rising finish before Ethan Chislett’s curling free-kick put the cap on what was a superb first-half.

The home side’s Tony Craig was then dismissed for a second bookable offence as things went from bad to worse for the Red Devils, who were second best all game.

Wimbledon showed a real maturity from that point onwards, which saw us through to a much deserved three points, as we really started to hit our stride again in possession.

All in all, it was a complete showing from our side in what was a first away win of the season - and it could provide the platform to kick-on moving forwards.

Jackson made one change to the team which started against Mansfield with Chislett coming in for Ayoub Assal. Meanwhile, Paul Osew was named on the bench fresh after signing a new two-year contract with the Dons.

Over 1,300 Wimbledon fans made the short trip to West Sussex for the game, helping to create a simmering atmosphere prior to kick-off.

Crawley were the first to go close with a half chance as Tom Nichols worked some space before firing into the side netting.

However, it would be our side who would take the lead and it was our lethal front partnership that came up with the goods again.

Chris Gunter won the ball high in the opposing final third before Josh Davison took possession. The striker quickly slipped in the onrushing Young-Coombes, who charged into the box before firing high into the net with a superb finish.

It was very nearly 2-0 soon after. This time Davison got in behind, but his powerful effort was well saved by Corey Addai in the Crawley goal.

Wimbledon’s pressing was consistently forcing the hosts into mistakes and frustrations were beginning to grow amongst the home faithful.

Jack Currie was next to threaten for the Dons, the wing-back firing just over from a tight angle after he got in behind.

We did double our lead soon after though and once again it was Chislett who came up with another spectacular strike. The midfielder lined-up a free-kick from distance before curling home into the top left corner just shy of the half-time whistle.

As the men in yellow and blue looked to press home the advantage, Crawley were reduced to ten men. Craig was adjudged to be the guilty party as he hacked down Young-Coombes as the last man, earning a second yellow card.

Assal was thrown on following the dismissal and quickly caused problems for Crawley with his direct running as the Dons looked to increase the advantage further.

Any balls that did find their way through the thirds were quickly sniffed out by the backline, whilst Nik Tzanev was as commanding as ever when dealing with aerial deliveries.

Into the latter stages, it was a case of game management and keep-ball from our side as we saw out the game with the minimum of fuss. It was an important three points as our first away win of the campaign was secured – much to the delight of the travelling Womble Army!

AFC Wimbledon: Nik Tzanev, Will Nightingale, Alex Pearce, Lee Brown, Chris Gunter, Jack Currie, George Marsh, Paris Maghoma, Nathan Young-Coombes (Ayoub Assal), Ethan Chislett (Alfie Bendle), Josh Davison

PICS: Stephen Flynn (Pro Sports Images)

Match Reports

Ticket News

Important ticket information for Crawley

Please let us know if you expected to receive your ticket in the post

19 August 2022

We've now sold out of tickets for Saturday's big game at Crawley.

All of the 1,300 tickets have been snapped up by Dons fans, so we'll have a large travelling army for the trip to Sussex.

Buy now from our online ticket shop .

With a considerable number of tickets required to be collected at Crawley on the day, we recommend arriving early to pick-up your ticket.

Ticket collection will be from the away turnstiles at Broadfield Stadium and we will have our own volunteers outside to help with this.

REMINDER

Make sure you plan your journey well in advance. Due to another round of strike action there will be no trains stopping at Crawley on the day. Trains from London will stop at Three Bridges (approximately three miles away). However, the last train from Three Bridges (via Gatwick) to London is at 5.27 pm. We therefore recommend pre-booking a taxi, or using the local bus service, which stops at Three Bridges and Gatwick.

Visit this website for more details.

Access the National Rail website to plan your journey.

Places are still available on our supporters' coach for this game (£24) with the following pick-up points: