All-Square at Wimbledon.
Morecambe made one of their longest road trips of the season to visit AFC Wimbledon in the leafy south-west London suburbs today. The one and only authentic Dons started the game at their virtually brand new Cherry Red Records stadium on Plough Lane in tenth place in League Two. (Cherry Red was a shade of colour favoured by Gibson guitars. It was also a track by Rock group The Groundhogs back in the day with an extraordinarily simple but effective lead riff but a bass line which most local bands couldn’t play properly because it contains a `bridge’ which most of them couldn’t get their fingers around. Does that priceless information have anything to do with it, I wonder?)
Whatever, AFC Wimbledon have won two of their last six league games but also lost three, most recently in east Lancashire last Tuesday night when they went down by two goals to nil at Accrington. The visitors were level on points with the Wombles prior to the game but in eleventh position in the table due to a much weaker goal difference: minus one as opposed to plus ten. But the Shrimps have played one game fewer and started today’s encounter on the back of three straight wins in a row; four wins out of six and just a single loss in that time. Morecambe have also won their last three away games in succession. This sequence started with a win in which today’s opposition fans would have been cheering us on: at the hated interlopers from Milton Keynes, who once stole the original Crazy Gang’s identity lock, stock and barrel. The Shrimps’ latest win was last Tuesday, when Ged Brannan’s Big Red Army gave Tranmere a two goal start on the Wirral but finally won two-three, thanks to a phenomenal strike with the last action of the game from a free kick by Jacob Davenport.
Historically, the two clubs have met thirteen times before, with Wimbledon winning four of them and Morecambe winning five, most recently in the reverse fixture up north last October, when Derek Adams’ team won 4-1 in a game which wasn’t as comfortable for the Shrimps as the scoreline might suggest.
The Dons’ Manager, Johnny Jackson, said this to the local media yesterday:
“It’s going to be the team that puts a run together that’s going to get in the play-offs, so we’ve got to be that team. We’ve got to try to have a bit more of that consistency about us. We are in decent form, we had a little setback in midweek, but I think we’re playing well and picking up points regularly. That’s what we’ve got to keep trying to do. If we can put three or four wins together, we could find ourselves amongst it. That’s what we must aim to do. Every team around it is going to be saying the same thing, including tomorrow’s opponents, so it’s important we get it right and get it right soon. We’ve got to be the team that puts a run together. It’s so tight. We’re one point outside the play-off places and only four points separate Notts County in the last place down to Newport County in fourteenth. I’ve seen a lot of Morecambe recently and they’ve been one of the form teams in the division, regardless of where they are – they’re in and around us. It’s an important game as far as that’s concerned, and we won’t be taking them lightly at all. They’re a very good side.”
Opposite Number Ged Brannan had these thoughts prior to the game:
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing at the minute. We’re full of confidence. The lads know that if they play well and work really hard, they are a match for anyone in this league. We’ve shown that – but Saturday is going to be a really, really tough game. We’re going to have to be on the top of our game to get the three points. They’re right next to us – I think we go above them if we beat them. They’ve got great home form, but we’ve got good away form, so it will be a good game.”
Wigan loanee Joe Adams – who has been a revelation in the few games he has played so far for Morecambe – was not named in today’s squad. He travelled with the squad but was not well enough to play today due to a sickness bug. Farrend Rawson – finally recovered from injury and then recent illness – was named on the bench this afternoon.
It was overcast but dry and quite mild as the game kicked-off in the south-west of the capital this afternoon. Morecambe started on the front foot but it was the hosts, though, who won the first corner of the afternoon after six minutes. It came to nothing as full-back Jack Currie’s attempt on goal went well wide of the target. Wimbledon also had the first strike on goal of the match when the ball was worked down their left by Josh Kelly following a precise lob from the back before James Tilley headed his cross goalwards only for Archie Mair to field it without too much trouble. But Morecambe hit back after a quarter of an hour. Yann Songo’o fed Jake Taylor, who played Ged Garner in with a tremendous pass forwards. But home stopper Alex Bass was quick to come off his line and smother Ged’s effort. With Tilley always active, the Wombles continued to press after this. Mair palmed Kelly’s cross away for another corner which came to nothing with 18 minutes played. Huge central striker Omar Bugiel then dived in the away penalty area after 25 minutes but Referee Neil Hair rightly ignored him. Joel Senior got away on the right a couple of times as the visitors played on the break but the hosts were dominating possession and creating most of the chances for the majority of the opening half an hour. Wimbledon were channelling most of their moves down their left and the impressive Armani Little took advantage of this with a curling shot which only just missed the target after 35 minutes. However, the Shrimps came closest to opening the scoring a minute or so later when Senior’s fine cross from the right found David Tutonda at the far post. David had a clear shot on goal but unfortunately skied his resulting effort well over the bar. Garner then had to retire hurt just before the end of the half, suddenly sitting down on the pitch with what looked like some sort of muscle pull. Jordan Slew took his place but Julian Larsson moved in from the left to lead the line.
So it was all-square at the break. The Dons looked the livelier of the two sides and in Kofi Balmer they had a central defender with a phenomenally long throw which was always testing for the visiting rearguard. But the Shrimps had created the clearest opening of the game so far. With the two teams looking pretty fairly matched, it was all to play for in the second period.
It took the hosts just five minutes from the re-start to take the lead. Lee Brown played the ball to Ronan Curtis on the left; he slung the ball into the centre, Kelly flicked it on and an unmarked Bugiel tapped the ball home centrally past a helpless Mair. Our Ged shook things up with a couple of changes with almost an hour on the clock. Larsson and Taylor were both withdrawn for Jacob Davenport and Gwion Edwards. The latter almost immediately forced only the Shrimps’ second corner of the afternoon. But the Dons continued asking most of the questions. Morecambe had a real let-off as Wimbledon broke down the left yet again after 72 minutes. Currie carried the ball forward and then found big Bugiel, who should have added to his tally this afternoon with the goal at his mercy. Instead, he fired straight at Archie in the away goal under pressure from Morecambe Skipper Jacob Bedeau and the young Scotsman gratefully clung onto the present. The hosts soon came to regret this. In the 74th minute, Gwion slung over a corner and when it wasn’t cleared, Songo’o sent over a second cross which Chris Stokes bundled home for an equaliser. The visitors came close to taking the lead only a couple of minutes later when Senior’s cross was only just missed by Charlie Brown before the Wombles managed to clear it. Edwards was then fed by Slew and warmed Bass’ hands with a deflected shot in the eighty-third minute. Both sides had half-chances after this as further changes for both sides were made from the respective benches. But there was no further scoring and the game finally ended – probably fairly – one goal each.
Morecambe thus remain unbeaten in four games and maintain their very impressive recent unbeaten away record. Both clubs benefited from the single point today: Morecambe took over the Wombles’ previous tenth position; the Dons themselves went up to eighth. Both are just one point off Harrogate in the lowest of the Play-Off places but with Morecambe’s re-arranged game at Walsall scheduled for next Tuesday, the Shrimps could very well find themselves in the rarefied atmosphere of the Division’s elite by Wednesday morning.
This is what the boss thought of it all this afternoon:
“It was a great point in the end. I’m not making excuses but we had illness right through the camp today. There were five or six lads who were well off it because of this illness. So – the character the lads showed before the game just to go out on the pitch – and to get away with it: we could have sneaked it at the end. Obviously, it wasn’t our best performance but I was so delighted (with) the way the lads all dug-in together. It was tough today. I’ve said from Day One: any point away from home in this league, it’s really good: it keeps us up there – it keeps us in the mix. They put a great effort in.”
AFC Wimbledon: 12 Alex Bass; 3 Lee Brown (17 Ryan McLean 89’); 5 Kofi Balmer; 7 James Tilley (Y); 10 Josh Kelly (9 Josh Davison 76’); 14 Armani Little (C); 16 James Ball (19 John-Joe O’Toole 89’); 18 Omar Bugiel (8 Harry Pell 89’); 24 Ronan Curtis (38 John-Kymani Gordon 76’); 26 Jack Currie; 33 Isaac Ogundere.
Substitutes not used: 1Nikola Tzanev; 15 Alex Pearce.
Morecambe: 30 Archie Mair; 3 David Tutonda (Y); 4 Jacob Bedeau; 6 Yann Songo’o; 9 Ged Garner (14 Jordan Slew 43’); 11 Julian Larsson (19 Gwion Edwards 56’); 12 Joel Senior; 15 Chris Stokes; 18 Jake Taylor (Y) (16 Jacob Davenport (Y) 56’); 20 Charlie Brown (5 Farrend Rawson 84’); 38 Nelson Khumbeni (Y) (23 Max Melbourne 84’).
Substitutes not used: 21 Adam Smith; 22 Kayden Harrack.
Ref: Neil Hair.
Att: 7,715 (212 from Morecambe.)
