Dons Rally Not Enough To Avoid Defeat
Exeter 2 v Wimbledon 0
Wimbledon suffered their first defeat of the season as they lost 2-0 defeat at Exeter City on Saturday (17 August) thanks to a brace from the Grecians’ John O’Flynn.
The Dons fielded an unchanged line-up from the previous week’s encouraging performance against Wycombe Wanderers but found themselves 2-0 down at half-time. Despite a second-half rally, it wasn’t enough to claw back a point.
The home side took the lead after just 11 minutes when a ball into the centre was dummied by Aaron Davies and fell to O’Flynn, who had capitalised on a lapse by Andy Frampton to find space and fired home past Ross Worner with the aid of a slight deflection.
But the Dons responded positively and Jack Midson went close with a header from Callum Kennedy’s long looping cross from the left, while Michael Smith also headed over following a dinked cross by George Porter.
The Dons’ hopes weren’t helped when they lose Alan Bennett through injury on the half hour, and just minutes later the hosts were 2-0 ahead. Kennedy was beaten for pace by David Wheeler whose cross found O’Flynn who capitalised on being given a yard of space by Frampton to deflect the ball into the far corner of the goal.
The Dons changed their formation at half-time, replacing Porter with George Francomb and going to a positive 3-5-2 formation as they attempted to get back into the game. But Worner also had to be alert to deny Exeter a third, saving well at the base of his near post after Sam Parkin got his head to a Craig Woodman cross.
Luke Moore saw his drive deflected wide and, from the subsequent corner. Frampton went close to atoning for his earlier errors when he got his head to Francomb’s deep cross, only to see Woodman head clear on the line.
And it wasn’t until the dying moments that the Dons came closest to scoring, with Luke Moore beating the Exeter defence to get a toe-poke to Francomb’s ball in, only to see Pat Baldwin clear off the line.
The Dons entertain freshly relegated Scunthorpe United at Kingsmeadow on Saturday (24 August) before entertaining hotly tipped Fleetwood Town the following week.
Exeter: Krysiak, Dawson, Baldwin, Coles, Woodman, Wheeler (Gow 85), Grimes, Oakley, Davies, Parkin, O’Flynn (Sercombe 58, Doherty 67). Subs not used: Reid, Gosling, Keohane, Pyn.
Goalscorer: O’Flynn 11, 36.
Booked: Coles 31, Doherty 72.
Wimbledon: Worner, Fuller, Frampton, Bennett (Weston 39), Kennedy, Porter (Francomb 46), Sweeney, Pell, L. Moore, Smith, Midson (Sheringham 59). Subs not used: S. Moore, Fenlon, Arthur, Brown.
Booked: Pell 73, L. Moore 75.
Attendance: 3,881
By Rob Crane
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August 17, 2013
