AFC WIMBLEDON v HULL CITY -- 20/21 LEAGUE ONE - PLOUGH LANE 27th FEBRUARY 2021

Saturday 27th February 2021 3:00pm

AFC Wimbledon will 'host' their next home game back in Wimbledon against Hull City at the Plough Lane Stadium. Still no prospect of any fans being allowed in to watch during the latest Government national lockdown which is clearly the same for us all but frustrating given the journey we had to reach our return home. On the plus side though many people (including myself) have received at least one dose of the various covid-19 vaccines via the NHS. Maybe this is our route back to some sort of 'normality'. The Dons managed a midweek win 1-0 against Gillingham, while Hull City also had a midweek home game against Ipswich Town where they lost 1-0. A win this afternoon for the Dons would hopefully keep us out of the bottom four relegation places but it's beginning to look like any four from seven with a gap opening up to the teams above. Wimbledon confirmed the appointment of head coach Mark Robinson also recently signed former Spurs youth team product Shayon Harrison who was taken off on his debut against Peterborough and hopefully that injury is not as severe as it first seemed no Ollie Palmer still which has been a longer term issue while the Dons will be boosted by the return of midfielder Callum Reilly for this weekend’s game, with the former Gillingham man having set the midweek game out against his former club due to a hamstring problem. 

Onto today's game itself this Saturday in League One and our opponents today, Hull City are flying high at the top end of the table, and look to be one of the favourites to return to the Championship this season. A key win against them would be appreciated. Hull City are led by Grant McCann. The Tigers currently occupy 3rd place in the League One table after their defeat to Ipswich midweek, with 53 points they are hot on the heels of the automatic places held by Lincoln and Peterborough. Hull City's first team regular Richie Smallwood remains a long-term absentee ahead of Saturday's game. Mallik Wilks is their top scorer this season with 16 goals so we need to keep him quiet today.

Most Recent League Games [Tuesday night]
AFC Wimbledon 1 - 0 Gillingham

Hull City 0 - 1 Ipswich Town

Head to Head
Our head to head form against Hull City is brand new having never met before this season in our current form. The reverse fixture back in October saw us lose 1-0 to a Keane Lewis-Potter goal deep into first half stoppage time at the KCOM stadium.

Starting XI's [now confirmed]

AFC WIMBLEDON 

Win Odds - 4/1 [William Hill]

Walker (Gk),  Johnson,  Heneghan,  Nightingale,  Guinness-Walker,  Woodyard (c),  Dobson,  Rudoni,  Chislett, Longman,  Pigott

SUBS - Tzanev (Gk), O'Neill,  Csoka,  Alexander,  Oksanen,  McLoughlin,  Osew

HULL CITY
Win Odds - 4/6 [William Hill]
Ingram (Gk),  Coyle,  ⚽Burke,  Greaves,  Elder,  Honeyman (c),  Jones,  Docherty,  ⚽Wilks,  ⚽Magennis,  Lewis-Potter

SUBS - Long (Gk),  Eaves,  Emmanuel,  McLoughlin,  Slater,  Crowley,  Whyte

Selected Bets On This Match;

• Over 2.5 goals in 1st half @6/1.
• Penalty Taken @11/4. Yes
• Over 3.5 goals in match @5/2.

⚽Half Time Score - 0 - 2    [Magennis 24' pen  Burke 43']

First Half Comments;

Kick off at Plough Lane as Wimbledon get us away in the sunshine, not surprising that the opening ten minutes see Hull dominate but nothing to show for it so far. Good. More of the same from the visitors winning plenty of corners but the defence holds out and the Dons begin to get into the game a bit more. A penalty awarded to Hull on 24 minutes is scored by Josh Magennis straight down the middle 0-1. After that disappointment the home side do settle again and have a bit more of the play, and just when I thought we might get back into it as half time loomed Hull City doubled their lead 0-2 with a goal from Reece Burke after a mistake by the Dons keeper.

⚽Full Time Score - 0 - 3    [Wilks 64' pen]

Match Summary;
No chance when you give away soft penalties and easy goals like we did today. Too weak and back in the relegation mix once more having done so well midweek. Next two games are very important a trip away to Shrewsbury and then it's off up to Blackpool. 

My Man of the Match - No one in a Dons shirt.

Attendance - Sadly still no one for the time being. Maybe sometime later this year would be nice, after all we've a new stadium to celebrate in 2021.

Today's Referee - Today's match officials for this weekend will be Mr Craig Hicks from Surrey, last took charge of us in the Football League Trophy against Brighton (u21s) a 2-0 win for the Dons. His assistants are Michael Webb and Ryan Whitaker and our fourth official this afternoon will be Darren Blunden.

Dons next league match:
Tuesday 2nd March vs Shrewsbury Town (Away)
League One Kick off 7:00pm