Young Dons emerge with credit in friendly at Cobham
AFC Wimbledon U-18s pushed Chelsea all the way on Friday in a rematch of the thrilling FA Youth Cup tie.
With a gap in Wimbledon’s Merit League programme, the young Dons were invited down to Chelsea’s training complex in Cobham for a friendly.
Both sides fielded several players from the FA Youth Cup tie earlier this season and in a close match Chelsea’s young crop earned a 2-0 win.
Despite Wimbledon creating several chances, Chelsea scored a first-half opener and the hosts doubled their advantage 12 minutes from time to seal it.
With man of the match Reece Williams-Bowers (pictured right above) continuing his impressive form, Wimbledon threatened to get back into it at 1-0 and it needed an excellent solo goal from Charlie Wakefield to clinch victory for Chelsea.
Manager Mark Robinson said: “Following our FA Youth Cup game earlier this season, Chelsea U-18s manager Joe Edwards wanted to get another game against us. The lads were very excited about playing on the beautiful pitch at Cobham and taking on Chelsea again.
“I thought for long spells we were excellent. It was a very different game to the FA Youth Cup tie as we wanted to show that we could play more of our progressive passing game against the best and we had some excellent passages of play throughout the game. We created some very good chances and had good possession.
“My only slight criticism was that despite playing very well we could have asked their back four and keeper more questions when we got into good areas. They had five lads that started in the FA Youth Cup and we had six so it was evenly balanced.
“The biggest compliment I can pay our boys is that Jody Morris asked me after the game if we could fit another game in before the end of the season as they find it very difficult to find games that remain competitive for 90 minutes. Our unbeaten run has come to an end, but I look forward to the response of our boys in the build-up to Exeter in the league next week.”