AFC WIMBLEDON v PETERBOROUGH UNITED LEAGUE ONE SATURDAY 18th JANUARY 2020

Has not been the strongest of starts to the New Year for the Dons, a disappointing draw with Southend then followed by a week off due to no FA Cup games and then we had last weekends loss 2-1 at Portsmouth, leaving us in 20th place on just 24 points only a couple of points above the drop zone ahead of Tranmere Rovers. During the Portsmouth game we also saw Scott Wagstaff sent off and on loan forward Marcus Forss leave with an injury. While we await to see how serious that injury might be for us we have to look forwards to our next game at home against Peterborough United on Saturday. While our opponents sit in 9th place in the league their recent form is not all that strong having drawn last weekend they had three defeats beforehand so maybe we can get something from this. We've also been able to bring in a new signing on loan for the rest of the season welcome Mads Bech Sorensen a Danish central defender from Brentford and Max Sanders has extended his loan deal from Brighton too. Further news is that nineteen-year-old Dons left-back Paul Osew has also extended his contract which is well deserved and hopefully he will continue to develop with us. We will be keeping an eye on the Tranmere game against Ipswich Town and also Rochdale away at Wycombe and hopefully if these results can go our way we can make a small move up the table.

FORM GUIDE
(Last 6 matches in league one, the most recent result shown from left to right)
AFC Wimbledon -- LDLWLW
Peterborough United -- DLLLDW

LAST TIME OUT

Portsmouth 2 AFC Wimbledon 1 

Peterborough 0  Gillingham 0

Updates will be published with team news and more news as and when it comes through. Peterborough are likely to be without their captain Mark Beevers who was sent off in the goalless draw at home to Gillingham last weekend, will have to see who replaces him and takes the arm band in due course. Up front they have the dangerous Ivan Toney and the Dons will have to find a way to keep him quiet, Peterborough have recently signed midfielder Jack Taylor from National League club Barnet for an initial fee of £500,000 which does show the gulf in class between us as these are figures we can only dream of sadly. The Dons are now hunting a new forward (probably another loan) as Marcus Forss has suffered a significant injury and has now returned to Brentford so they can supervise his treatment and recovery ... you may have only been here a short while but on behalf of all the fans Thank You Marcus.

Starting Line Ups (Confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON

Odds -- 13/5 (William Hill) 

🟨Trott (Gk),  O'Neill,  Hartigan,  Thomas,  Pinnock,  Sanders,  McLoughlin,  Reilly,  Guinness-Walker,  Sorensen,  ⚽Pigott (c)

Subs – McDonnell (Gk),  McDonald,  Appiah,  Osew,  Wordsworth,  Wood,  Biler

PETERBOROUGH UNITED

Odds -- 19/20 (William Hill) 

Pym (Gk),  Mason,  Kent,   Bennett,  Butler,  Reed,  Brown,  🟨Szmodics,  Taylor,  Eisa,  🟨Toney

Subs –  Tasdemir,  Boyd,  Ward,  Chapman,  Cartwright,  Barker,  Jade-Jones

Selected Bets on today's match;
Wimbledon to win and BOTH teams to score @5/1.
Joe Pigott to score 1st Goal @4/1.
Penalty Awarded and Scored @9/2.
Red Card in the match @11/2.

⚽H/T Score – 0 - 0

First Half Comment;
Peterborough kick us off here at Kingsmeadow on a bright sunny but very cold afternoon winning a corner inside 20 seconds which thankfully comes to nothing. Recent Dons loan signing Mads Bech Sørensen first telling contribution is to foul Ivan Toney, hopefully giving him an early warning sign but the first 10-15 minutes are fairly even now without anything spectacular happening. Nearly twenty five minutes before the Dons first shot on target, an Anthony Hartigan shot saved for our opening corner which also comes to nothing. Anthony Wordsworth replaces the injured Max Sanders before half time but there is still no change to the score and as it stands scores elsewhere don't help us if it remains a draw, we go in all square at half time.

⚽F/T Score – 1 - 0  [Pigott 58']

Match Summary;
A welcome win for Wimbledon puts us four points above the drop zone and we leapfrog the scummy franchise in the process so a good day. A single goal from Joe Pigott enough and was a well taken effort too would have been nice to score a few more but it's three points in the bag and a clean sheet to go with it. Thought it was a good debut from Mads too, kept Ivan Toney quiet but we are still going to need someone to support Pigott with Marcus Forss injured and no longer with us, lets enjoy the weekend.

My Man of the Match – Joe Pigott.

Referee -- Our match official for this game will be Mr Darren Drysdale from Lincolnshire and is an RAF Sergeant based at Waddington. Averages about 3.5 cards a game and not afraid to show the red and dismiss players so we need to beware of this as the squad cannot afford more absentees. His assistants this afternoon will be Stuart Butler and Daniel Cook while the Fourth Official is Anthony Da Costa (No it's not the guy from Blue!) who will have to put up with opposition manager Darren Ferguson giving him grief most of the game ... could be worse it could be Steve Evans.

Attendance – 4,453.

Next league match:
Tuesday 28th January vs Burton Albion (Home)
League One Kick off 7:45pm