AFC WIMBLEDON v SOUTHEND UNITED LEAGUE ONE WEDNESDAY 1st JANUARY 2020

It's New Years Day and to kick off the new year AFC Wimbledon are at home against fellow strugglers Southend United. A Boxing Day win against Bristol Rovers followed by the Sunday 1-2 loss against Oxford United leaves the Dons in 18th place on just 23 points. The head to head stats are much closer and having faced each other on 18 occasions Southend have won 9, the Dons 8 and there's been a single draw 2-2 back in 2014 in the Johnstone Paint Trophy, expect plenty of goals today.

FORM GUIDE
(Last 6 matches in league one, starting with the most recent)
AFC Wimbledon -- LWLWDW
Southend United -- DLDLDL

LAST TIME OUT

AFC Wimbledon 1 Oxford United 2 

Southend U 2  Franchise Scum FC 2

Updates will be published with team news and more news as and when it comes through. Our opponents Southend are to be honest in a mess, on and off the pitch currently 22nd in the league on just 8 points and will be looking to stop the goals going in is there main problem with a -38 goal difference telling a sorry tale. In the reverse fixture back in October the Dons won 1-4 at Roots Hall. Their manager Sol Campbell has a big task and they should really be building for League Two. They've had a short break with no game over the weekend and after a good comeback holding the Franchise to a 2-2 draw they are still looking certain to go down along with Bolton Wanderers. Therefore it appears to be a rare game where the Dons will start favourites.

Starting Line Ups (Confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON

Odds -- 5/4 (William Hill) 

Trott (Gk),  O'Neill,  Delaney,  Thomas,  Rudoni,  Sanders, 🟨McLoughlin,  ⚽Reilly,  Guinness-Walker,  Forss,  Pigott (c)

Subs – McDonnell (Gk),  Hartigan,  Pinnock,  Osew,  McDonald,  Wood,  Biler

SOUTHEND UNITED

Odds -- 3/1 (William Hill) 

Oxley (Gk),  Kinali,  Dieng,  Kiernan,  Bwomono,  Demetriou,  Milligan (c),  Mantom,  McLaughlin,  🟨Hopper,  Humphrys

Subs –  Bishop (Gk),  Barratt,  Goodship,  Hamilton,  ⚽Kelman,  Hutchinson,  Rush

Selected Bets on today's match;

Wimbledon to win and BOTH teams to score @23/10.

Marcus Forss to score 1st Goal @4/1.

Penalty Awards and Scored @9/2.

Red Card in the match @11/2.

⚽H/T Score – 1 - 0  [Reilly 23']

First Half Comment;

It's Southend who kick off the opening fixture for us in 2020 and already have the first shot on goal in the opening thirty seconds, thankfully Stephen Humphrys shot is saved by Nathan Trott. A handful of chances in the opening twenty minutes including Marcus Forss but still no breakthrough yet until the twenty third minute and the breakthrough does come Callum Reilly scores for the Dons a nicely executed right footed shot from outside the box to the top right corner, Ryan Delaney providing the assist. Now lets go get the second.

⚽F/T Score – 1 - 1

Match Summary;

So depressing, cannot increase a lead or even hold one against one of the worst sides in League One, sadly we are just as bad it appears and only outside the drop zone by luck. That we have dropped points against Southend, Bolton, Tranmere and Franchise is shocking and all the club seem to focus on is begging for more of our money, not going to happen when this is what they do with it. Poor. Oh Southend scored with a 90th min penalty 1-1.

My Man of the Match – James Moriarty ... left today, good luck wherever you end up next .

Referee -- Our referee for this afternoon's big relegation scrap will be Craig Hicks from Surrey, he's taken charge of us once this season the 2-2 draw against "them" in the league cup but has bounced between League One and Two this term. Has been a referee since 2001 but only promoted to Level 1 in 2017 and averages around three bookings a game. Not one to dish out a red card often but has already shown as many this season as he has in the past two seasons so you never know. His assistants on New Years Day will be Andrew Aylott and Mike Desborough.

Attendance – 4,422. 

Next league match:
Saturday 11th January vs Portsmouth (Away)
League One Kick off 3:00pm