AFC WIMBLEDON v CHARLTON ATHLETIC -- LEAGUE ONE 2018-19 SEASON 15th DECEMBER

This weekend the Dons will travel to Charlton Athletic in a league one London derby and its a first return for ex Dons forward Lyle Taylor who now leads the Addicks attack and has 12 goals this season. 

Having let Neal Ardley go the Dons have steadied the bad form a little bit but still remain six points from safety in 23rd place on 15 points, only Bradford City are below us. New Dons manager in situ is Wally Downes who saw his side come from a goal down to draw 1-1 against Rochdale in his first official game in charge with new assistant Glyn Hodges. Charlton arrive here after a win midweek against top of the table Portsmouth and prior to that had won four out of five in the league so find themselves currently sitting in 5th place in the table on 37 points they ought to be firm favourites under manager Lee Bowyer. 

FORM GUIDE 
(Last 6 matches in the league, starting with most recent)
AFC Wimbledon -- DLWLLL
Charlton Athletic -- WLWWWW





LAST TIME OUT

AFC Wimbledon 1 Rochdale 1

Portsmouth 1 Charlton Athletic 2






Updates will be published with team news and more news as and when it comes through. It's not considered as an all ticket match but not expecting this one to sell out by any means due to the poor run of form for the Dons should be little trouble getting tickets. Going to be very cold, maybe the action on the pitch will warm the crowd, hopefully we'll have James Hansen available after injury and attempt to deliver a better service up to the likes of Joe Pigott and Mitchell Pinnock? Lyle Taylor will start up front for Charlton and Hansen appears on the bench for us.

Line Ups (confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON

Odds -- 100/30 (William Hill) 

McDonnell (Gk)  Watson,  Nightingale (c),  Purrington,  Thomas,  Wagstaff _,  Hartigan,  Wordsworth,  Soares,  Pinnock _,  Barcham

Subs – King (Gk),  Sibbick,  Burey,  Kalambayi,  Trotter,  Hanson,  Jervis

CHARLTON ATHLETIC

Odds -- 4/5 (William Hill) 

Steer (Gk),  Solly (c),  Bauer,  Pearce,  Sarr _,  Reeves,  Bielik _,  Aribo,  Fosu-Henry,  Taylor _,  Ajose

Subs –  Phillips (Gk),  Dijksteel,  Marshall,  Morgan,  Stevenson,  Sarpeng-Wiredu,  Hackett-Fairchild

H/T Score – 0 - 0

First Half Comment;

OMG what a start, a straight red card for Charlton's Naby Sarr for a terrible foul on Tennai Watson after only 15 seconds and the Dons will have a whole game against 10 men to enjoy. Despite being a man down it's Charlton who make a lot of the opening chances with Lyle Taylor getting a few opportunities too. So far weathered the early storm against a very good inform side even if they have a man short. And then it happens, another sending off this time for Mitchell Pinnock to even it up 10 a piece he gets a second yellow for an apparent dive on 33 mins? 

I knew this ref would be a cause for concern but although we hanging on for a point as we head to half time it would still put us bottom now that Bradford are leading. 

F/T Score – 2 - 0

Match Summary;

The second half continued with Charlton on top but failing to hit the net, the Dons hoping to give their travelling fans something to cheer, the referee doing his best to annoy both sets of supporters. Then on the hour the expected goal comes, and Lyle Taylor of course scores for the home side against us a clinical finish that we are missing. Plenty more bookings and no real sign of a comeback, it's beginning to look bleak for Wimbledon this season and the coup de gras is from Mark Marshall who scores a second for the hosts with a couple of minutes to go.

My Man of the Match – Lyle Taylor (Charlton) ... doing the job we miss most, scoring the crucial opening goal. Gutted.

Referee -- Our referee for this afternoon's big derby game will be Mr Trevor Kettle a firm favourite with the Dons fans is our Trevor ... it's going to be even more of an uphill struggle lets hope he's got his specs on. 

Attendance – 10,691. (1,048 Dons fans)

Next match:
Saturday 22nd December vs Wycombe Wanderers (Away)
League One 3:00pm