Our side were made to pay for a lack of attacking edge on Tuesday night as Northampton Town emerged as the 2-0 winners at the Cherry Red Records Stadium.
In a game that offered very little in terms of offensive action Johnnie Jackson’s side were undone by two moments of madness as a soft Jon Guthrie header and a Ryley Towler own goal extinguished our hopes of taking anything from the match.
As the rain fell down throughout the game our confidence and usual passing rhythm seemed to seep away, with many of the same issues encountered in recent losses returning to haunt us.
Jackson made three changes to the side which lost 1-0 at Stockport County, as Towler came in for his first start, whilst Paris Maghoma returned from suspension and Nathan Young-Coombes was also brought in.
Meanwhile, Kyle Hudlin and Jack Currie both made their returns from injury to make the bench alongside new signing Will Jääskeläinen.
It was soaking wet conditions at a noisy Plough Lane as play got underway, with both sides seeking to gain a foothold in the first quarter.
There was an early scare for the Dons inside the first 10 minutes as our former winger Mitch Pinnock found himself clean through after pouncing on a poor pass by Tzanev. Luckily for us, his lobbed effort was tame and easily plucked out of the night sky by the grateful Tzanev.
It was then Wimbledon’s turn to threaten as a well-worked passing move ended with Harry Pell’s close-range effort being well saved by Lee Burge.
The Cobblers came right back at us, an initial effort palmed back into the box by Tzanev, before Towler was on hand to slide the ball clear to deny Sam Hoskins a certain goal from point-blank range.
We wouldn’t be so lucky the next time though as a free-kick from the right was headed by Guthrie and the ball appeared to squirm under our number one after coming through a crowd of bodies.
As we began to regain our composure we then created another good chance as Young-Coombes played in a superb ball from the right, but Ayoub Assal could only fire over the bar from near the penalty spot.
Sadly, the Wimbledon number seven saw his evening cut short soon after as he went off injured, with Osew coming on in his place on the right of the front three.
Chris Gunter then had a long distance effort tipped wide by Burge as the Dons looked to level just shy of half-time.
To say the beginning of the second-half was scrappy would be an understatement as both sides struggled to string passing moves together in the wet conditions.
Just when it felt as if we were building momentum, disaster struck again as the Cobblers doubled their lead. A low cross came in from the left, with the ball hitting the unfortunate Towler, which in turn wrong-footed Tzanev as it dribbled into the bottom corner.
Despite a raft of substitutions, the Dons rarely came close to finding a goal and Quaine Bartley was denied a late consolation when his close-range injury-time effort struck the crossbar.
AFC Wimbledon: Nik Tzanev, Chris Gunter, Lee Brown (Jack Currie), Harry Pell (George Marsh), Nathan Young-Coombes (Paul Osew), Josh Davison (Kyle Hudlin), Ayoub Assal, Ethan Chislett (Quaine Bartley), Ryley Towler, Alex Pearce, Paris Maghoma
PICS: Stephen Flynn (Pro Sports Images)