Keith Tuckey Stadium Tuesday, August 8th, 2006   1st Team Friendly         Croydon Athletic 1-4 AFC Wimbledon
2006 /07

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Tuesday 08 August 2006 Friendly - Senior Croydon Athletic 1 - 4 AFC Wimbledon Match report AFC Wimbledon crusied to a comfortable 4-1 win last night courtesy of goals from Michael Haswell, Byron Bubb, Paul Barnes and a second half own goal. Solid defending accompanied some attractive football as the Dons enjoyed their run out against Ryman One opponents Croydon Athletic. New signing Lee Kersey kept his spot at the heart of a three man defence that also welcomed back Antony Howard. Mark Rooney made his first appearance for the Dons sitting in front of the back line, allowing Wes Daly to get further forward with Byron Bubb. The first half was pretty much one-way traffic. Bubb was full of running from the start, driving at the Rams'' defence and shooting over from just outside the box. Roscoe D''Sane then brought a good save out of James Wastell after a mazy run. Wimbledon opened the scoring when Steve Wales won a free-kick wide on the right. Although Michael Haswell curled the ball rather tamely towards the Croydon keeper, Wastell got the flight of it all wrong and it ricocheted off the post and into the net. It wasn''t long before the Dons were 2-0 up. Bubb received the ball from a throw-in on the left, moved inside and swerved a low shot past Wastell from 25 yards. The former Hendon winger went close again shortly afterwards, stepping over the ball several times before blasting his shot high. Paul Barnes showed he had spring as well as pace, flicking on one of Andy Little?s long kicks out. In the absence of support though he ran on to the ball himself, lost it, got it back, took the ball round the keeper and, with the goal gaping, hit the post! Moments later Haswell found D''Sane with a great through ball. But rather than shoot the former Aldershot striker tried to take the ball round Wastell ? with the keeper getting enough on it to push it away. Following some tidy passing, the Dons then worked the ball down the right channel. Sadly, when D''Sane?s centre zipped across the six yard box Bubb was unable to get on the end of it. Croydon were restricted to just a couple of efforts on goal in the first period ? a thirty-yard effort that drifted wide, and a shot that was deflected over the bar following a goal-mouth scramble. For the second half Dave Anderson made some substitutions. If the strength of a squad?s bench is anything to go by then the club should be confident of a decent Ryman Premier campaign. Wayne Finnie, Luke Garrard, Darren Grieves and Simon Sobihy came on, along with ex-Fulham youth player Robert Watkins, who''s been doing a bit of training with the squad. Indeed Watkins and Sobihy made an instant impact working the ball down the left before ''Speedo'' crossed for Darren Grieves, who will be disappointed he didn''t score. In fairness to the big forward, though, Wastell made a cracking save to his left from a shot that lacked nothing in power and accuracy. Sobihy then found Barnes from a deep corner, but the striker''s half volley was too high. As did Grieves'' second effort which soared over the crossbar from a Bubb free-kick. Joe Paris was again given game time, replacing Steve Wales, who appeared to pick up a groin strain midway through the half and the young player once again gave every indication that this could be his break through year for the Dons with a solid display at right wing-back. Paul Barnes'' final contribution to the game was the Dons'' third goal ? one that he had worked tirelessly for ? and it was all his own work. A long punt over the Rams'' midfield found Barnes who beat his defender with the first touch and went round the goalkeeper with the second before firing the ball low into the net. ''Barney'' was replaced by Paul Armstrong. Byron Bubb, full of tricks and thoroughly enjoying himself, had a couple of sighters which Wastell was equal too, before Sobihy crossed for Dons'' fourth, which went in off a Croydon defender under pressure from Grieves. Mark Rooney''s excellent debut was over with a quarter of an hour remaining as he was replaced by Robin Shroot, a player who joins us having been at the Staines Academy having previously been at Wimbledon FC''s Academy. Luke Garrard had been busy since coming on and presented with a bit of space galloped forward to try his luck from 35 yards. His effort flashed wide Finnie picked out Armstrong who chested the ball down cleverly but couldn''t keep his volley under control. Moments later Armstrong had another go from 25 yards, but once again Wastell was not tested. Croydon, to their credit, kept going and put together some late chances, the best of which fell to Gareth Graham. He smashed in a quick free-kick from 30 yards, taking advantage of the Dons defence which was slow to get organized. At the end of the match the 4-1 score line didn''t flatter the Dons. They had made more than enough chances to double that tally and had mixed up their direct game with some neat one and two touch passing football on the way.