AFC WIMBLEDON v FLEETWOOD TOWN -- 20/21 LEAGUE ONE - PLOUGH LANE 5th APRIL 2021

Easter Monday 5th April 2021 3:00pm
AFC Wimbledon will 'host' their next home game back in Wimbledon against Fleetwood Town at the Plough Lane Stadium this Bank Holiday Easter Monday. I doubt we'll see a game this season with fans not due back till May and some 'test' events to be organised first. A few fans being allowed in for these test events featuring our youth/academy stars towards the end of May, having seen some pictures taken at the recent Charlton game of the new stadium shows a few things to be completed on the perimeter of the stands it does look like the main stand is ready for action. The Dons played away on Good Friday against Plymouth Argyle losing 1-0 to an early goal from Sam Woods while our opponents today Fleetwood were at home against high flying Peterborough United and also fell to a 1-0 defeat when Jonson Clarke-Harris scored late for the visitors.
Dons team news - Shane McLoughlin has been ruled out for this game with a groin injury that he picked up while warming up at Plymouth on Friday. Dan Csoka has recovered from illness, so he comes back into contention for the squad. Alex Woodyard is suspended as he serves the second match of his ban for picking up 10 bookings this season. Paul Osew will miss Monday’s match due to illness.

Onto today's game itself in League One and our opponents today, Fleetwood Town, find themselves in 16th place in the league on 50 points so probably feel fairly safe. They saw the departure of Joey Barton as manager earlier this year and have replaced him with the experienced Simon Grayson. Their top scorer is Callum Camps who joined them last year from Rochdale also have Kyle Vassell who is another regular danger at this level, are captained by on loan Everton player Callum Connolly since their previous club captain Paul Coutts was allowed to leave for Salford City.

Most Recent League Games (Good Friday)
Plymouth Argyle 1 - 0 AFC Wimbledon

Fleetwood Town 0 - 1 Peterborough United

Head to Head
Our head to head form against Fleetwood is very even over the years, of the past fourteen encounters in league and cup we've won five, lost five and the remaining four drawn. The reverse fixture at Fleetwood ended with a 1-0 win for the Dons with a Steve Seddon strike the difference between the teams.

Starting XI's [Confirmed]

AFC WIMBLEDON 

Win Odds - 8/5 [William Hill]

Tzanev (Gk),  🟨Alexander,  🟨Heneghan (c),  Nightingale,  Guinness-Walker,  Oksanen,  Dobson,  Rudoni,  Assal,  Longman,  Pigott

SUBS - Cox (Gk), O'Neill,  Currie,  Chislett,  Robinson,  Kalambai,  Palmer

Fleetwood Town

Win Odds - 9/5 [William Hill]
Cairns (Gk),  Hill,  🟨Connolly (c),  Holgate,  🟨Burns,  Batty,  Rossiter,  🟨Camps,  Andrew,  Garner,  Vassell

SUBS - Coleman (Gk),  Finley,  McKay,  Saunders,  Donacien,  Biggins,  Baggley

Selected Bets On This Match;

• Over 1.5 goals in 1st half @5/2.
• Joe Pigott to score first @9/2.
• Penalty to be awarded and scored @7/2.
• Bookings over 45 points @7/4.
• Over 3.5 goals in match @3/1.

⚽Half Time Score - 0 - 0

First Half Comments;

Bank Holiday Monday football is underway as Fleetwood kick off this afternoon, sun is back out, hopefully the football gods will shine on us. Nice to see our 19yo youngster Ayoub Assal getting on the ball early, one for the future, though the first shot in anger is an effort from the visitors which is blocked and then the first booking of the match shown to Fleetwood defender Callum Connolly. Few chances are sadly missed by Joe Pigott and Ben Heneghan and we need to capitalise on these soon. Still a very quiet first half hour to this game, we tend to have our best in the latter part so praying this will deliver the goods once more. Last fifteen minutes of the first half now. More bookings, Ben Heneghan for a bad foul so both captains now in the refs book, Cheye Alexander joins him shortly after as half time is reached with the game all square.

⚽Full Time Score - 0 - 1    [McKay 88']

Match Summary;
FFS another low quality affair settled late on by Barrie McKay for Fleetwood. Even a point would have been useful so very disappointed with this result, gaps begin to increase to the teams above the likes of Swindon and Northampton. While we aren't down yet it's still looking likely - Zero shots on target in the whole game, it's just not good enough. 

My Man of the Match - Ayoub Assal.

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 - Our match referee for this afternoon will be Mr Peter Wright from Lancashire, is still a relatively young referee having been promoted to the National list in 2018. He took control of our 2-0 defeat at Doncaster earlier this year so we hope for a little more fortune today. Quite happy to show a card and averages around 3.5 a game so will watch that market with interest too. His assistant referee's today are Leigh Crowhurst and Nicholas Cooper while our Fourth Official today will be Adrian Tranter.

Dons next league match:
Saturday 10th April vs Accrington Stanley (Away)
League One Kick off 3.00pm