Dons Below-Par Dons Beat Fleetwood


Wimbledon 1 v Fleetwood Town 0

Wimbledon beat Fleetwood Town 1-0 at Kingsmeadow on Saturday (5 February) to claim a victory that their performance hardly deserved.

Both sides combined to produce a dire match that was further ruined by an idiosyncratic referring performance by Tim Robinson.

The West Sussex official produced a string of bizarre decisions and was constantly at his whistle to help smother any attempts that the two sides made to produce an entertaining game.

But just as it looked as if the match would petter out into an appropriate 0-0 draw, visiting goalkeeper Scott Davies fumbled a  harmless, looping effort under his bar – and Christian Jolley pounced to prod home an unlikely winner.

The visitors’ disappointment was further enhanced when Junior Brown was minutes later shown a deserved red card for scything down Rashid Yussuff, having already been booked earlier in the game.

Danny Kedwell produced the only moment of note during the first-half, when his tame effort went wide.

And it was more of the same in the second period as neither goalkeeper was unduly troubled, although Seb Brown did have to be alert to gather one thunderbolt effort and was another time grateful to his defenders for helping block a goalmouth scramble.

All in all, Jolley’s late effort will do little to lodge this game in the memory of those who saw it. Nevertheless, the Dons stretched their lead at the top of the table to four points as neither Crawley nor Luton played.

The Dons will be hoping for a better performance when they entertain York City at Kingsmeadow on Saturday 12 February.

Attendance: 3,298

Wimbledon: Brown, Hatton, Gwillim, Gregory (Yussuff 74), Johnson, Stuart, Mulley, S. Moore, Kedwell, Jolley, Jackson. Subs not used: Franks, Turner, Nwokeji, Kiernan.

Goalscorer: Jolley 84.

Booked: Gwillim 36, Stuart 90.

Fleetwood: Davies, Beeley, Barry, Clancy, Vieira, Brown, Miles (Mullan 55), Maguire, Seddon, Haining, Gregan. Subs not used: Pond, Hurst, Rowe, Milligan.

Booked: Miles 31, Brown 75, 88, Gregan 90.

Sent off: Brown 88.

Referee: Tim Robinson (West Sussex).

Rob Crane

February 5, 2011