MATCH REPORT: AFC Wimbledon - Morecambe (Sky Bet League Two)

Wibbly Lane, Matchday 34

AFC Wimbledon Starting XI: Brown; White, Frampton, Fundingsrud, Kennedy; Porter, Francomb (Sweeney 74’), L. Moore, Arthur; Sheringham (Green (Other) 74’), Green (Bald),

AFC Wimbledon Substitutes: Green (Other), Bennet, Pell, Strutton, Sweeney, Worner, Bamba

Morecambe Starting XI: Arestidou; Parrish, Hughes (McCready 76’), Doyle, Diagne; Williams; Marshall (Mwasile 56’), Buckley, Howell, Threlfall (Ellison 69’); Redshaw

Morecambe Substitutes: Wright, Ellison, Sampson, McCready, Mwasile, Amond, Rainsford

The first 15 minutes of the game featured Wimbledon sending a long lateral pass to nobody and some short passes directly to the opposition. What makes this baffling is that, despite the opening five minutes, the Dons gave one of their best technical performances of the season.

Perhaps more baffling than the early clinic on What Not To Do If You Want To Retain Possession in spite of the otherwise masterful performance is the scoreline. We’ll get to that.

(But before we do we should note that Other John Green has returned from injury, coming off the bench in the second half. And there was much rejoicing.)

Like I said, Wimbledon had one of their strongest performances of the season once those initial 15 minutes passed. They were confident in possession, their attackers made smart runs off the ball, and everyone used and created space effectively. Their passing was also sharper than at any other point this season, with the number of successful key passes (or “killer balls”) reaching a season high.

And yet the scoreline was relatively modest. Wimbledon only tallied once, in the 20th minutes when Andy Frampton headed home from a corner. That the Dons couldn’t rack up more goals was more a credit to Morecambe’s disciplined defending than Wimbledon’s lack of finishing quality. (That said, the woodwork and the linesmen were clearly conspiring against us today.) Still, the blue and yellow looked a constant threat in the final third, and the Shrimps never found a foothold in the game. Frampton’s header ended up being enough to secure all three points.

This was a thoroughly professional performance by Wimbledon. It wasn’t spectacular, there was no explosion of goals (goalsplosion?), but boxes were ticked and points were won. Wimbledon got a just reward for putting in a good shift. And that, perhaps even more than the 5-0 drubbing they gave to Oxford near the beginning of the campaign, is more a validation of this side’s title credentials than anything else we’ve seen.

AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Morecambe

Scoreline: Frampton (WIM) 20’

Discipline: n/a