It was a special Thursday night at the Cherry Red Records Stadium as we hosted a fixture involving the Ukraine national side.
With war-torn Ukraine still taking part in sport internationally, Wembley is their destination on Sunday for a UEFA Euro qualifier, but first they were looking for a suitable stadium to fine-tune their preparations.
And we were delighted to be the venue chosen to host this behind-closed-doors match versus Brentford B, a game that ended in a 2-0 win for Ukraine, thanks to goals by Oleksandr Svatok and Heorhii Sudakov.
Former AC Milan and Chelsea forward Andriy Shevchenko and Arsenal's Oleksandr Zinchenko watched from the stands in a match that featured Ukrainian's best of 2023 with Chelsea's Mykhailo Mudryk strutting his stuff on the Plough Lane turf. In opposition for Brentford's second string was our former loanee Nathan Young Coombes, who came on as a second-half substitute.
AFC Wimbledon's Revenue & Operations Manager Bal Srai said: "Following our announcement that we are staging the international women's fixture between Australia and Scotland, we were delighted to be asked to host this match at the Cherry Red Records Stadium.
"It was great to watch several world class players gracing the hallowed Plough Lane turf and it would be even better to host a full men's international fixture soon with spectators in attendance at our wonderful stadium."
The picture above shows Mykhailo Mudryk with our Managing Director Danny Macklin.
Ukraine's national press officer Oleksandr Hlyvynsky highlighted the importance of his nation continuing in sport at this time.
"We are fighting for our freedom, but at the same time we are trying to live normal lives," he said. "The logistics were not easy because it took 24 hours for us to travel over - via train, bus, and aeroplane - but it's important that we continue to play sport.
"Our national football leagues resumed last August and when the sirens go to signal air raids we have to go to the shelters, but we quickly start again so that we can get on with our lives."
Pic credit for top photograph: obfcpics.co.uk/Mark D Fuller.