Saturday 27th November 2021 3pm
AFC Wimbledon will host their latest League One game at Plough Lane for the 2021-22 season against Fleetwood Town, Both sides are at the lower end of the table and will be looking to make a push over the coming month to improve their position. Wimbledon have not been at their best in the league of late, lost their last two games in the league before a win 1-0 against non league Guiseley in the FA Cup, then the games against Portsmouth which was another late defeat 2-1 and Crewe on Tuesday where we conceded first but turned that around and ran out 3-2 winners despite a late comeback of their own by Crewe and two quick bookings (actually received a straight red) resulting in a dismissal for the Dons Ayoub Assal in stoppage time.
UPDATE - Ayoub Assal’s six-match ban has been rescinded after a successful appeal by the club. Ayoub was incorrectly shown a straight red card in the dying seconds of Tuesday's home match against Crewe Alexandra. The referee mistakenly believed he had spat at an opponent and that automatically triggered the FA’s minimum six-match suspension for such an offence. However, evidence submitted by us which included witness statements and video footage - alongside confirmation from Crewe themselves that Ayoub did not spit at one of their players - was presented to the FA earlier this morning and the sanction was subsequently overturned. As a result of this appeal Ayoub will now be available for the squad to face Fleetwood at home on Saturday.
After the Tuesday night fixtures we are currently in 18th position in the league one table on 20 points. Our manager Mark Robinson said that there's no panic in the Wimbledon ranks. We are not playing too badly the results are not going our way of course, but we do create chances, the team is relatively inexperienced and if it were not for Nik Tzanev in goal we would be in a far worse position. Some of the players just need a bit more poise in front of goal, and no need to panic. Mark Robinson has said that Henry Lawrence is likely to be in the squad to face Crewe after recovering from tonsillitis. The on-loan Chelsea right-back, who has made an impressive start to life at Wimbledon, missed the visit to Portsmouth after his return from England Under-20 duty, but he’s primed to return on Tuesday night. Also a check on Darius Charles who was also absent for the Portsmouth defeat at the weekend. “I need to check on Darius. He was out doing a bit today, but he just has a few problems with his hip, so I just need to check, but apart from Darius there is nothing new from Saturday in terms of injuries.”
Recent League One Results (Tuesday night)
AFC Wimbledon 3 - 2 Crewe Alexandra
Oxford United 3 - 1 Fleetwood Town
Onto today's game itself this Saturday day in League One and our opponents today, Fleetwood Town are currently managed by Simon Grayson. After their opening 17 fixtures they sit in 22nd place on 14 points. They were brushed aside by Oxford United midweek and will be looking to bounce back against us. Fleetwood are captained by midfielder Jordan Rossiter who joined the Cod Army initially on loan two seasons ago and previously with Rangers and Liverpool. Rossiter didn't feature last weekend and so it might be Tom Clarke who will continue to deputise as captain. Their top scorer so far is Danny Andrew who is a defender so I suspect gets forward a lot or goes up for set pieces, we will need to pay attention to this.
Head to Head
Our head to head form against Fleetwood Town since our return to the league as AFC Wimbledon is quite even, since 2012 we've played fifteen times, winning five, losing six and the remaining four were draws. Of course we also played them in the non league days, famously beating them home and away in the 2011 play offs 8-1 overall.
Starting XI's [Confirmed]
AFC WIMBLEDON
Win Odds - 11/10 [William Hill]
Tzanev (Gk), Osew, 🟨Heneghan, Csóka, Guinness-Walker, Woodyard (c), Hartigan, ⚽Assal, ⚽McCormick, Rudoni, Palmer
SUBS - Oualah (Gk), Marsh, Chislett, Awokoya-Mebude, Pressley, Lawrence, Jenkins
FLEETWOOD TOWN
Win Odds - 5/2 [William Hill]
Cairns (Gk), ⚽Johnson, Holgate, Clarke (c), Andrew, Morris, Batty, 🟨Matete, Lane, Morton, ⚽Garner
SUBS - Crellin (Gk), McLaughlin, Boyle, 🟨Edmondson, Biggins, Clark, Johnston
Selected Bets On This Match; - Over 1.5 goals in 1st half @5/2.
- Ben Heneghan to score at any time @9/1
- Penalty to be awarded and scored @7/2.
- Bookings over 45 points @11/5.
⚽Half Time Score - 0 - 1 [Garner 35']
First Half Comments;
Kick Off 3pm today at the Cherry Red Records, Plough Lane Wimbledon stadium, we will keep updated with events here. The Dons get us underway on a cold afternoon, hopefully there will be plenty to keep the fans entertained and active. End to end with little final effort in the opening ten minutes, one blocked shot from Jack Rudoni for the home side, need to settle. The visitors get into the game as Danny Andrew also sees his shot blocked, something surely about to give soon. Didn't take long, 18 minutes on the clock and Fleetwood thought they had taken the lead, but Callum Morton's effort is chalked off. Couple of bookings for Jay Matete and Ben Heneghan still no sign of a goal though. Then of course on 35' Fleetwood do score as striker Gerard Garner hits a left foot shot into the centre of the goal. Why do we always struggle against teams in the bottom half? Very poor showing again in the opening half at home, sometimes wonder why we cannot get up and at them from the start.
⚽Full Time Score - 2 - 2 [Assal 53', McCormick 79'] [Johnson 84']
Match Summary;
Okay so the positive is that we didn't lose having been behind at half time, but the annoying thing is another victory taken away from us by a team in the bottom four, we seem to struggle always against these sides. Nearly ten minutes of injury time too. Should have been back to back wins but not to be. Assal scored again which is good, after his red card was overturned from last week. Sure we will see the same rhetoric from the management team and next week it's the FA Cup 2nd Round. Yes I am a bit annoyed, also because I had us in a nice looking accumulator the rest of which came good. Perhaps I should have known better than to back us by now. ;(
My Man of the Match - Ollie Palmer.
Attendance - 7,405.
Today's Referee - Our match referee for this afternoon will be Mr Robert Madley, a former Premier League referee until 2018 and now plying his trade in the EFL. So plenty of experience, hopefully that will mean a no nonsense approach, averages about 3.5 bookings per game in recent seasons. Will have assistance from Andrew Aylott and Samuel Ogles while our fourth official today is Conor Farrell.
Next league one fixture;
vs Accrington Stanley (Away)
Tuesday 7th December @7:45pm.
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